Atome Philippines has secured a PHP 5 billion (~US$88 million) wholesale facility from Asia United Bank, giving the digital finance platform local-currency funding to expand its consumer credit business in one of Southeast Asia’s most underbanked large markets.
The facility will mainly support the Atome PayLater Anywhere Card, which the company says has now been issued to more than three million Filipinos.
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According to Atome, up to 80 per cent of cardholders are first-time card users, while 65 per cent are women. Most use the card for recurring household spending, including groceries, food, household items, telecoms bills and utilities.
That usage profile matters. In the Philippines, credit access remains thin outside the traditional banking system, especially beyond Metro Manila. While digital payments have grown rapidly, formal credit penetration still lags behind demand, leaving fintech lenders, buy-now-pay-later operators and digital banks competing to serve consumers who are financially active but underserved by incumbent lenders.
Local funding for a local credit business
For Atome, the AUB facility adds a sizeable peso-denominated line to its funding base. That is more than a balance-sheet detail. Consumer lenders operating across Southeast Asia often face currency mismatch risks when they raise capital in US dollars but lend in local currency. A domestic funding line can help reduce that exposure, improve pricing discipline and support more predictable expansion.
Atome said adoption of its card has expanded beyond Metro Manila into Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The company’s wider product portfolio in the Philippines includes lending, savings and insurance, positioning it less as a single-product BNPL provider and more as a digital finance platform targeting mass-market consumers.
“The closing of AUB’s PHP 5 billion facility validates Atome’s market position and delivers competitive, PHP-denominated funding at meaningful scale,” said Christian Quiros, President and Country Manager of Atome Philippines.
AUB framed the transaction as part of its support for fintech platforms operating within formal credit standards. “This partnership advances financial inclusion while maintaining rigorous credit standards,” said Ernesto Uy, Executive Vice President and Account Management Head at AUB.
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The phrasing is notable because BNPL and embedded credit players across the region have had to work harder to distinguish responsible lending from unchecked consumer credit growth. Regulators in markets such as Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have tightened scrutiny of lending disclosures, affordability checks and debt collection practices, even as they recognise that digital lenders can broaden access where banks have limited reach.
The Philippines remains a large inclusion opportunity
The Philippines has become one of Southeast Asia’s more active digital finance markets, driven by high smartphone usage, a young population, and persistent gaps in banking access. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has reported strong growth in digital payments, with electronic transactions accounting for more than half of retail payment volumes in recent years. The central bank has also set financial inclusion as a core policy priority, particularly for women, micro-entrepreneurs and consumers outside major urban centres.
Still, access to credit remains uneven. Many Filipinos have digital wallets but limited access to formal revolving credit, cards or instalment products. That gap has created room for companies such as Atome, Billease, Home Credit Philippines, GCash-linked lending products, Maya, SeaMoney and other app-based lenders to build credit relationships with consumers who may not qualify for traditional bank cards.
The competitive field is crowded. Home Credit has long focused on point-of-sale consumer finance, particularly electronics and appliances. Billease has built a local BNPL and consumer lending business. GCash and Maya benefit from large wallet ecosystems and payments data. Regional players such as SeaMoney and Kredivo, meanwhile, have used e-commerce, payments and risk-scoring capabilities to push deeper into credit.
Atome’s card-led approach gives it a different route to consumer adoption. Instead of limiting usage to partner merchants or online checkouts, a PayLater card can become part of daily spending behaviour. That also raises the stakes on underwriting. Everyday-use credit products can scale quickly, but they need disciplined credit limits, repayment monitoring and collection practices if they are to avoid overextension among first-time borrowers.
BNPL evolves beyond checkout financing
Atome started as a BNPL platform but, like several players in the sector, has moved into a broader financial services model. That reflects the economics of the category. Pure BNPL margins can be pressured by merchant fees, funding costs, fraud risk and repayment behaviour. Platforms that can cross-sell lending, cards, savings or insurance may be better positioned to improve customer lifetime value, although they also face heavier regulatory and operational demands.
Across Southeast Asia, the BNPL sector has shifted from aggressive merchant acquisition to more disciplined credit growth. Rising interest rates over the past few years made wholesale funding more expensive, forcing lenders to pay closer attention to unit economics and asset quality. Investors have also become less tolerant of growth driven primarily by subsidies.
This is why the AUB facility is strategically useful for Atome. A large local bank facility suggests a degree of institutional confidence in its Philippine book, although the ultimate test will be portfolio performance as card usage expands beyond early adopters and urban customers.
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Atome is part of Singapore-headquartered Advance Intelligence Group, which is backed by investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Warburg Pincus, Northstar and EDBI. The group operates across digital finance and risk technology, and Atome remains one of its more visible consumer brands in Southeast Asia.
For AUB, the deal gives it exposure to a fast-growing fintech credit channel without having to originate every end-borrower relationship directly. For Atome, it supplies domestic liquidity at scale in a market where demand for accessible credit is real, but where regulatory tolerance will depend on whether lenders can prove they are expanding access without encouraging unsustainable debt.
The Philippine opportunity is significant, but not uncontested. The next phase of growth will likely be defined less by card issuance numbers and more by repayment quality, customer retention and whether digital lenders can serve first-time borrowers without repeating the excesses seen in less regulated consumer credit markets.
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