UnionBank UPAY for MSME: Convenience and Efficiency for the country’s growing number of MSMEs

Digital payments have been a big part of our life lately the past 2020 and beyond. We Filipinos now see and utilize digital payments as a safer and faster way of paying for goods. It was reported last month by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas that digital payments made up 20.1 percent of all transactions in 2020, more than double the figure from two years ago of 10 percent. This strong momentum is creating opportunities particularly for enterprising Filipinos who engage in e-commerce.

To help micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country capitalize on this growing trend, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), the region’s digital trailblazer and the country’s foremost bank for MSMEs, has launched a groundbreaking feature that will make e-payments easier and secure not only for customers but also for MSMEs—the new UPAY for MSME.

UPAY for MSME was unveiled at the Union Bank's 12th E-TalkTales media event, wherein UnionBank Vice President and MSME Segment Head Jaypee Soliman, and UnionBank Merchant Acquiring and Payment Gateway Head Gerry Austria led discussions on the critical role of digitizing payments in the country's fast evolving market.

Soliman began the discussions by talking about the state of digital payments in the country, citing the significant growth in the number of Filipinos who utilize these payment solutions. This is an indication that Filipinos are now more open to the idea of becoming a cash-lite society.

“This shows how the consumers are now transacting digitally. They are ready. They are there. The number of Filipinos having e-wallets and bank accounts continue to grow. But the question is, are the MSMEs ready to accept digital payments? This is where UPAY comes in." Soliman said.

UPAY offers a fully integrated, single platform payment collection can make inbound payments easier for entrepreneurs 

• It includes the option to generate payment links with multiple collection channels
• the option to generate InstaPay QRPH for digital and physical channels. 
• UPAY for MSMEs is a payment gateway that is embedded in Union Bank of the Philippines MSME Business Banking App.

What makes this stand out from your usual digital payment option is the fact that with UPAY, a business does not have any limit to the amount of deposits that your account can have in a month. 

This, combined with the ease of use of Instapay QRPH for digital and physical channels make sure that all types of businesses can get their full potential sales.

It really paves way to manage your business finance easy by giving MSMEs of all sizes and types the power to generate payment links, request payments, send it to their customers and provide multiple payment options, all these reconciled and credited to a single UnionBank account. 

Another awesome feature of UPAY is convenience.

Customers can choose their preferred payment channel either via Unionbank Online, InstaPay, Other Digital Wallets, Credit/Debit Cards and even over-the-counter through UnionBank’s expansive network of partner channels nationwide.

Efficiency and Convenience are the two main driving concepts for UPAY. 

With the truth that you don't need to be in your physical store to actually have a customer pay you. You can actually be vacationing somewhere else and someone wants to buy a product which they saw through your post on Instagram or Facebook. You can actually just create a payment link and send it to that customer, so it is very convenient for both the merchant and the customer.

Through the new feature, UnionBank wants to level the playing field for MSMEs by making the feature
accessible to them, which was previously only available to the bigger merchants as part of enterprise
platforms that are too technologically demanding and expensive for smaller players.

For more information about the company and this article, please visit unionbankph .com/msme/upay