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December 2, 2025 | 12:00am

In neighborhoods across ASEAN, life unfolds in simple, meaningful ways: neighbors sharing meals, children playing freely on warm streets and communities coming together in times of joy and challenge. These everyday acts of connection build resilience, trust and shared wellbeing.

This sense of community health extends beyond physical spaces. It encompasses our financial lives. Just as a neighborhood thrives when everyone looks out for one another, our region’s economic vitality depends on collaboration, inclusion and access for all.

Fintech is more than just technology. It’s a bridge that connects us to better opportunities and financial security. Our ASEAN neighbors are not rivals, but partners in this journey. By working together, we can shape ecosystems where financial health becomes a shared reality rather than just an aspiration.

This spirit of partnership and inclusion is front and center at events like the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) 2025, where ASEAN’s digital finance community gathers to chart a path toward measurable, inclusive progress.

At SFF 2025, the Philippines once again took the stage at the Bagong Pilipinas Country Pavilion with a powerful, unified message: we are moving beyond digital access toward measurable financial health. This conversation is unfolding on two fronts. While we announce vital industry initiatives in Singapore, simultaneous discussions are happening in Basel, Switzerland, where the Financial Stability Institute of the BIS and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development hold a global Financial Health Workshop, represented by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. and Digital Banks Association of the Philippines (DiBA) and Maya Bank president Angelo Madrid from the Philippines.

Over the past two years, DiBA PH has taken the initiative in establishing a national measurement system for financial health. The 2025 DiBA Financial Health Survey (second edition) revealed the Financial Health Index among digitally banked Filipinos rising from 56 to 62, marking significant improvements in day-to-day financial control, emergency preparedness, and longer-term confidence.

DiBA also documented behavioral design use cases across digital banks, showing how tools like automated savings, nudges and personalized insights are shaping lasting financial habits.

Recognizing that financial health transcends digital banking alone, DiBA is working closely with the Fintech Alliance Ph to extend these insights to e-wallets, lending platforms and the broader fintech ecosystem. This partnership makes financial health a shared agenda for the entire digital economy, not just a single segment. This spirit of unity drives the initiatives unveiled and an industry moving as one.

With this spirit of collaboration, we mark important milestones: First, the joint adoption of the 2028 Digital Finance Industry Roadmap, anchored on the ambitious ‘80x80’ vision. We are targeting 80 percent of adults with active accounts and 80 percent of payments conducted digitally by 2028. The roadmap outlines foundational pillars, including open finance, interoperable credit data, cybersecurity, digital trust and responsible innovation. This collaborative effort actively invites government and regulators to co-shape the goals, standards and enabling policy environment.

Second, the launch of the Industry Financial Health Program, which integrates financial-health metrics and behavior-based tools into products to help users build confidence, resilience and sustainable financial habits.

Third, the introduction of the ASEAN Financial Health Survey Collaboration. Supported by the BSP, this initiative extends the survey framework across regional fintech associations. It positions the Philippines as a regional learning hub, laying the groundwork for a shared ASEAN view on financial health and amplifying regional cooperation aligned with global best practices.

Through these initiatives, the Philippines is set to lead with data-driven collaboration and practical innovation that benefits real lives. And as we take on the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2026, the Philippines is ready to lead our region with practical, inclusive and measurable initiatives, embodying President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s vision of a cohesive and resilient ASEAN community that advances digital transformation, sustainability and shared prosperity for all.

The Philippine Country Pavilion at the SFF exemplifies this collective effort, bringing together government bodies, digital banks, fintech firms and industry groups in coordinated action. As we embed financial health into every product, every policy discussion and every regional collaboration, we foresee that inclusion transforms into measurable impact.

Together, we are building a more fruitful and cooperative ASEAN neighborhood in front of our very own eyes. BYTES FROM B1

Through every conversation, collaboration, and joint partnership, our bonds as a community only grow stronger and its roots deeper.

Ultimately, the success of ASEAN’s digital transformation will depend on our ability to act with a true neighborly spirit: collaborative, inclusive, and forward-looking. As the Philippines takes on a leadership role in advancing financial health and innovation, our collective progress will rest on shared responsibility. When governments, industry, and communities move together with trust and purpose, we do more than just build digital systems; we strengthen the social fabric that unites our region and ensures prosperity for all.

Lito Villanueva is the Philippines’ leading thought leader in inclusive digital finance. As EVP and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer of RCBC, he has driven large-scale digital initiatives that advanced financial inclusion. He is the founding chairman of FinTech Alliance PH, representing 95% of digital retail financial transactions, and the first global chairman of the Alliance of Digital Finance Associations. Recognized as a People Asia Men Who Matter 2025, Asia Trailblazer, and AGORA Awardee, he continues to shape the fintech landscape in the Philippines and beyond.