Marubeni enters into mobile lending business in the Philippines

Marubeni has invested in AND Financing Corporation (AFC), a mobile lending company in the Philippines and a subsidiary of AND Global, a FinTech company in which Marubeni invested in December 2020, jointly with Premium Group, an integrated car service provider listed in Japan. As a result of this investment, Marubeni and Premium will become the largest shareholders of AFC and AFC will become an equity method affiliate of both Marubeni and Premium.

The Philippines is one of the ASEAN countries most expected to achieve high economic growth rates in the future, given its population of over 100 million, its young average age, and its growing middle-income demographic. However, while middle-income households are expected to expand their consumption demand, the use of financial services such as bank loans and credit cards is still limited to a small minority of residents.

AFC was established in 2018 as a subsidiary of AND Global with its Online Lending Platform under the brand name “LendPinoy”. Since then, the company has engaged in the microloan business by leveraging AND Global’s fintech solutions and mobile-based microloan expertise in the global market. AFC provides appropriate and unsecured loans to customers who have had difficulty using traditional financial services through its AI-based credit decision making system. With the rapid expansion of domestic consumption driven by the middle-income class of financial consumers, AFC has differentiated itself by offering longer-term and multi-purpose personal loans to respond to the consumer’s various financial needs.

In addition, by leveraging Marubeni’s affiliate company AND Global’s FinTech solutions (mainly AI-based support systems for financial businesses) and Premium’s expertise in financial services for individuals, AFC will build a data-driven business model and promote the optimization and DX-oriented loan management processes.

Through this investment, Marubeni will aim to grow AFC and contribute to the Philippines’ economic development by supporting increased financial inclusion and expanded consumer spending through managing the know-how and network it has accumulated in the Philippines.

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