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Pavel Fedorov - Philstar.com
April 1, 2026 | 3:10pm
How a simple reform could unlock fairer, cheaper credit for millions of Filipinos—and why it’s simpler than everyone thinks
“The Philippines does not have a shortage of data. It has a shortage of usable access to data.”
Let me begin with three letters that should not scare anyone: API. It sounds like the sort of term that belongs in a tech conference, not in a conversation about ordinary Filipino families.
But an API, an Application Programming Interface, is simply a secure way for one software system to talk to another. Your banking app uses it. Your shopping app uses it. Your digital wallet uses it. APIs are already everywhere. They are not exotic. They are the plumbing of modern life.
Which is precisely why it is worth asking why this simple tool has not yet been more widely applied in the Philippines to address one of the biggest economic challenges facing its people: the cost of consumer credit.
Over the past decade, the Philippines has seen what can only be called a consumer credit boom. Based on BSP statistics alone, even before counting a large Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-regulated segment and the informal market, consumer loans reached around P3.5 trillion by the third quarter of last year, roughly triple the level from a decade earlier.
On one level, this is progress. More Filipinos have access to financing. More families can better navigate emergencies, make major purchases and invest in a better life. Credit, when used well, is not a trap. It is a tool. But in the Philippines, that tool is often priced considerably high.
Many consumer loans are still extended at rates approaching 100% per year. So while credit availability is expanding, it does not necessarily translate into affordable inclusion. If no credit market infrastructure is rapidly put in place, many rising middle-class Filipinos will not be climbing the economic ladder. They will be running in place on a debt treadmill.
Why is borrowing still so expensive? Because too many lenders are still making credit decisions based on limited data availability. A borrower may have income records in one place, repayment history in another, transaction data somewhere else, and other useful indicators scattered across employers, banks, wallets, platforms, utilities and government-linked systems.
The data exists. The visibility does not. So lenders price for uncertainty, not precision. And when uncertainty is expensive, the good borrowers end up paying for the bad ones.
That is why the next chapter of financial inclusion is not just about lending more. It is about lending better.
There is a tendency to treat credit market reform as a highly technical and structurally complex topic. We hear that the data access is complicated. That customer consent is complicated. That secure connectivity is complicated. But much of that complexity is an illusion.
We already live in a world of secure, permissioned, API-based access. Nothing here needs to be invented from scratch. The pipes already exist. The standards are well understood. The technology is mature. The only thing missing is the regulation that says something very simple:
“If an institution holds a customer’s data, that customer should have the right to securely share it, via API, with a party of their choice.”
That is it. No need to reinvent the wheel. In this case, the solution is straightforward: a clear regulatory circular with two lines as per above that could meaningfully improve credit pricing in the Philippines.
We are encouraged by signs that this conversation is already moving in the right direction. In a recent roundtable discussion with SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo, we shared how secure, consumer-authorized data access can help build a more complete and accurate picture of borrowers. We believe that the regulator hears the merits of enabling regulated institutions to share relevant financial information effectively, when grounded in the consent of the consumer who owns the data.
The effects of this reform would be enormous. With secure API access to customer-authorized data, good lenders could underwrite more accurately. Fraud could fall. Defaults could be better predicted. Responsible borrowers could finally be distinguished from risky ones. And when risk is priced properly, loan costs come down.
This is how financial inclusion should work: not merely by making debt available, but by making it fairer, cheaper and smarter.
The Philippines does not have a shortage of data. It has a shortage of usable access to data. And in markets like credit, blocked data means blocked competition. Blocked competition means high prices. And high prices, in the end, are paid by ordinary Filipinos.
The truth is that one simple regulatory reform could do more for millions of Filipinos than a hundred discourses about innovation. Done right, secure API-based access to personal data would not just improve lending economics; it would shift power toward the customer, where it belongs.
That is what real financial inclusion looks like. Not more jargon. Not more waiting. Just one clear rule, one practical step, and one very large door opened for tens of millions of Filipinos.
Editor’s Note: This article from Salmon is published independently from our Editorial Newsroom.
About the Author: Pavel Fedorov is the co-founder of Salmon Group Ltd, a technology-driven holding company building a banking and lending platform across Southeast Asia, starting with the Philippines. Since 2022, he has led Salmon’s mission to expand access to modern financial services for underserved populations across Southeast Asia. Before co-founding Salmon, Fedorov built an extensive international career in financial services, including senior leadership roles at major institutions across London, Moscow and Dubai.
for Salmon
