Dragonpay President Robertson Chiang
MANILA – With the increasing number of entrepreneurs using online platforms amid the pandemic, Dragonpay and financial technology firm FDFC have partnered to create a joint payment solution for online merchants.
FDFC, through its digital credit app BillEase, and Dragonpay launched their buy now, pay later payment solutions where online merchants can provide their customers installment payment solutions for their purchases.
“Our joint payment offering will enhance both the merchant and end-customer experiences especially during this difficult period as the pandemic affects consumers’ ability to pay upfront,” FDFC president and co-founder Georg Steiger said in a statement.
BillEase allows users with no bank account or credit card to purchase online and provides payment terms of three, six, and 12 months with an interest rate between zero to 2.49 percent.
Merchants using Dragonpay can also activate their system to provide this buy now, pay later solution.
“Dragonpay has currently over 1,500 merchants that are fully integrated with their payment system. However, for this partnership, Dragonpay needs to let its merchants know about the service and still sign an addendum since this is a new payment category for merchants. Dragonpay is doing a soft launch of installment payments to a number of merchants around 40 as of date,” Dragonpay President Robertson Chiang told the Philippine News Agency in an e-mail.
Chiang said Dragonpay has seen significant growth in purchases of groceries and essential items during the lockdown.
Buyers also adapt to contactless shopping during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis.
“With this, we’re expecting that the trend will continue even after the coronavirus pandemic ends,” he added.
Moreover, Steiger said while the fintech company is prioritizing to tap the e-commerce industry, it also eyes to partner with education and healthcare sectors for the installment payment solutions.
“At the end of the day, we want every Filipino to have fast access to credit and address the low credit card and bank penetration in the country,” Steiger told PNA in an e-mail.
He said BillEase works like a credit card with no physical card, but an app or account that works on a dedicated checkout.
“Customers can secure a line of credit from as low as PHP1,000 up to PHP10,000 initially and this can grow up to PHP40,000 which they can use for online payments. We use proprietary decisioning technology or machine learning models to instantly issue credit lines to customers either prior to checkout or at the point of sale,” he added.
Steigr said foot traffic for brick and mortar stores has significantly declined due to Covid-19 despite the reopening of businesses as quarantine measures eased.
This would result in more stores and consumers tapping the online market, he said.
“A lot of online consumers are economically affected by this crisis and this is where BillEase as a fintech company comes in to provide consumers a solution to even out income or cash flow,” he added. (PNA)
