Voyager exec named among Top 100 Asian Fintech Leaders

AN EXECUTIVE from Voyager Innovations, the digital innovations unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications, Inc., was cited as one of the Top 100 Asian Fintech Leaders by the organizers of the recently concluded Fintech Finals 2016 (FF16) held in Hong Kong.

Lito Villanueva, vice-president and head of Fintech, Digital Inclusion and Alliances at Voyager Innovations, was the first and only Filipino named in the prestigious list that included leaders in banking, finance, startups, investment, and tech industries, such as MasterCard Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ajay Banga, Tencent CEO Pony Ma, Visa innovations executive Matt Dill, and Alibaba Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu, among others.

The list also included CEOs and top execs from leading Asian players such as, but not limited to, Apple Pay, Google, China UnionPay, Temasek Holdings Singapore, KPMG, ICICI Bank (India’s largest private bank), DBS Bank of Singapore, and ANZ Bank of Australia.

Aside from Villanueva, USAID Chief of Party for ePESO Project John Owens, Salarium CEO Judah Hirsch, and Lenddo CEO Richard Eldridge represented the Philippines in the list.

In the announcement and listing at the FF16 site, Mr. Villanueva was cited for leading Voyager’s suite of award-winning and innovative fintech products and services covering a variety of industries, sectors and segments which includes “digital microinsurance, microsavings, electronic lending for micro, small and medium enterprises, employees from both government and private sector, international remittance, G2P (government-to-person) and D2P (donor-to-person) cash grant disbursements from international humanitarian aid agencies, mobile banking for cooperatives and microfinance institutions, even antifraud security solution and contactless payment products.”

Mr. Villanueva was also recognized for partnering with “a host of stakeholders such as local and global financial institutions and global development agencies,” including the most recent ones with Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Thrift Banks and universal banks for the digital consumers loans marketplace, Lendr, the firstof-its-kind fintech service in the Philippines.