Netbank is betting that the future of fintech in the Philippines will be built not on wrappers, but on real banking infrastructure. Fresh off a Series B round led by Altara Ventures, the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) player is positioning itself as a fully regulated embedded finance platform—one that owns the ledger, not just the interface.
In a market where startups often run into the limits of legacy banks, Netbank’s pitch is simple: move at startup speed without sacrificing regulatory depth.
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In this conversation, CEO Gus Poston breaks down what that actually means — from scaling payments and lending to navigating risk, partnerships, and the realities of building financial infrastructure in the Philippines.
Excerpts:
Netbank positions itself as the Philippines’s first embedded finance platform operating on a full banking licence. In practical terms, what does that licence allow you to do that a typical fintech infrastructure player cannot?
A typical fintech infrastructure player (often a middleware provider) acts as a “wrapper” around someone else’s bank account. They are beholden to the bank’s uptime, risk appetite, and legacy settlement cycles.
Netbank owns the ledger. They don’t need to ask permission to open a sub-account or move money; they perform the settlement themselves. This means that we can provide a much broader range of services, from accounts to loans to payments. There are synergies between these services, enabling us to provide a ‘tailored, simple and complete’ service for our fintech and tech company partners.
You say fintechs in the Philippines eventually “hit the same wall” and need a bank that can move at startup speed. What exactly is that wall: regulation, settlement, compliance, legacy integrations, or the unwillingness of incumbent banks to support newer business models?
I’m describing a confluence of rigid legacy systems and risk aversion in traditional banks: most incumbents see fintechs as high-risk, low-margin experiments. When a startup scales, the incumbent’s manual compliance checks, ‘standard ways of working’, or basic mistrust become a bottleneck. We adapt to the fintech’s needs so we can keep developing alongside the partner.
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A press release says Netbank grew revenue by 88 per cent YoY in FY2025 and was profitable. What drove that performance most sharply: payments volume, accounts growth, lending, or a few large partners scaling quickly?
Payment volume was the main driver: QR.Ph grew rapidly last year, and we were a significant part of that growth. We expect this will continue. We are also proud of the growth we saw in accounts-as-a-service and embedded lending: these will drive our future growth.
A lot of BaaS players talk about becoming the infrastructure layer for digital finance, but margins can get thin if they are moving money in the background. How does Netbank make money in a way that is both scalable and defensible?
This is indeed a risk. However, Netbank aims to be more than a ‘regulated utility’; we are a genuine partner, jointly developing innovative solutions. We use the analogy of a meal: utility BaaS providers serve ‘ingredients’, and we aim to combine them into a ‘full meal’.
You are expanding into real-time disbursements, collections, cross-border rails, embedded lending, cards, and accounts. How do you avoid becoming too broad and losing focus, especially in a market where execution risk is high?
This is indeed a risk; we have a complex business. We use partnerships where possible and grow only when there is a justified business case. By building Lego bricks for businesses focused only on the back end, we avoid large marketing spend and customer support overhead.
Who exactly is Netbank building for today: fintechs, marketplaces, payroll platforms, SME software providers, lenders, or larger enterprises? And which customer segment has turned out to be more commercially attractive than you originally expected?
We build for a wide range of tech companies, including fintech and non-fintech companies and lenders. In the mid-term, we aim to enable more tech companies to offer financial services embedded in their products.
Embedded lending is attractive, but it can go wrong quickly if underwriting discipline slips. How are you thinking about credit risk as you scale lending products through partner platforms rather than direct customer relationships?
Ultimately, the fundamentals of credit apply: understand your clients and offer them a loan they want to repay. It is hard to pull meaningful data from clients, but partner selection can help identify good clients, simplify the lending process, and build loyalty. We typically aim to work closely with our partners, who often operate under a risk-sharing approach, allowing them to benefit from their ability to identify good clients.
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The Philippines is full of promise, but also operational friction. What has been harder than expected in building regulated financial infrastructure there: winning partner trust, navigating compliance, talent, or changing how companies think about banking integration?
The main challenge is that partnerships are slow to build and scale: the industry is just starting to appreciate the benefits of partnership and the possible products. We are now getting the momentum that pulls in clients.
What is Netbank’s real competitive moat as larger banks, digital banks, and regional infrastructure players all push deeper into embedded finance?
It’s our ‘open attitude’; we are willing to work with partners, listen to their needs and collaboratively design good banking solutions. It’s hard for a bank focused on its own clients to achieve this level of integration.
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