BIZ BUZZ: Surprise! MVP revives Smart Money

Competition is heating up in the Philippine e-wallet space, which to date is dominated by GCash, whose brand has become a verb, like “xerox” or “google,” in Pinoy lingo.

Now here come Apple Pay and Google Pay, which are looking to register and set up onshore operations.

But wait. The group of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan has hatched a new—or maybe not so new—fintech platform to add to the fray and it’s distinct from existing affiliate Maya.

Several Biz Buzz sources said that the platform is “Smart Money.” If it sounds familiar, it’s indeed the same brand that had a good start long ago but was decommissioned in favor of PayMaya.

PayMaya later on became Maya.

It hasn’t been launched yet, but it must be happening pretty soon as the Smart Money app is now available in the Apple Store.

Why does the MVP group want another platform that can also become a competitor to Maya? First, Maya’s business model has changed over the years. It has gained more ground in merchant acquisition than consumer-to-consumer payments and is now a properly licensed digital bank, one of the first six digital banks licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

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Secondly, while Maya’s parent firm Voyager Innovations remains PLDT’s fintech arm, the telco giant’s stake in the latter has been diluted to minority position, which means the new Smart Communications chief, Anastacio “Boy” Martirez, has little or no say in it (and he’s not exactly friends with Voyager chief Orlando Vea). If it’s his goal to challenge GCash, we hear that he wants to bring to the ballgame a new horse with an old (but compelling) brand name—whose reins he has full control of.

Can Smart Money 2.0 still catch up with GCash, which is seemingly light-years away? All eyes are on Martirez and MVP to raise the next unicorn.