Global vs. Philippines — mapping 22 banks and fintechs against 5 core directions shaping the future of finance, validated with live 2025–2026 evidence.
Relative intensity across the five directions — based on investment, traction, and strategic commitment
| Bank | A · Digital | B · API | C · Blockchain | D · AI | E · Embedded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | ●●●●● | ●●●● | ●●●●● | ●●●● | ●●● |
| Bank of America | ●●●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●●●● | ●● |
| Goldman Sachs | ●●● | ●●●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●●●● |
| Citigroup | ●●●● | ●●●●● | ●●●● | ●●● | ●●●● |
| Wells Fargo | ●●●● | ●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●● |
| Morgan Stanley | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●●●● | ● |
| HSBC | ●●●● | ●●● | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●●● |
| DBS Bank | ●●●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●●● |
| UBS | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●●● | ● |
| Standard Chartered | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
All five directions are active investment themes. Every major bank pursues at least three. Top-tier banks (JPM, Citi, Goldman) are active across all five simultaneously.
Goldman: B+E (platform + invisible). BofA/Morgan Stanley: D (AI personalization). JPMorgan: A+C (digital core + blockchain). Citi: most balanced across all five.
Embedded finance projected at $300B+ by decade-end. Banks feeling margin pressure as fintechs capture the customer relationship. Goldman and Citi chose to be infrastructure deliberately.
JPMorgan Kinexys: $2B/day on-chain, moving to public blockchain, launching tokenized fund management in 2026. The NY Fed's PoC participation signals regulatory acceptance.
JPMorgan (A+C), Goldman (B+E), Citi (B+C+E) are best positioned — building interlocking capabilities. Isolated innovation doesn't compound.
Morgan Stanley (98% AI adoption) and UBS building "Direction F" — advisor-AI symbiosis distinct from mass-market consumer AI banking.
Relative intensity across the five directions — traditional banks vs. digital banks and super-apps
| Institution | A · Digital | B · API | C · Blockchain | D · AI | E · Embedded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Universal Banks | |||||
| UnionBank | ●●●●● | ●●●●● | ●●●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| RCBC | ●●●●● | ●●●● | ● | ●●● | ●●●●● |
| BPI | ●●●● | ●●●● | ● | ●●●● | ●●● |
| BDO Unibank | ●●●● | ●●● | ● | ●● | ●● |
| Security Bank | ●●● | ●●●● | ● | ●●● | ●● |
| Metrobank | ●●● | ●● | ● | ●●●● | ●● |
| Landbank | ●●●● | ●● | ● | ●● | ●● |
| PNB | ●●● | ●● | ● | ●● | ● |
| Digital Banks & Super Apps | |||||
| GCash (Mynt) | ●●●● | ●●●● | ●● | ●●●● | ●●●●● |
| Maya Bank | ●●●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●●●● |
| GoTyme Bank | ●●●● | ●● | ● | ●● | ●●●● |
| Tonik | ●●●● | ●● | ● | ●● | ●● |
Direction E (Embedded) is the dominant battleground. GCash and Maya own the customer relationship for 100M+ Filipinos. Traditional banks are being pushed to back-end far faster than in the US or Europe.
Only traditional bank pushing all five directions. VASP license, 600+ APIs, i2i blockchain, digital-first culture. Doing what JPMorgan (Kinexys) does globally — with a financial inclusion mandate.
DiskarTech as BaaS inside PalawanPay (20M users) mirrors Goldman's Stripe Treasury model. Banking becomes invisible infrastructure. SSS/DepEd government partnerships add unique public dimension.
BDO, BPI, Metrobank have massive networks but trail UnionBank, RCBC, and digital pure-plays in innovation. BPI most API-forward. Metrobank's Temenos AI bet is smart but narrow.
Unlike global markets with multiple blockchain banks, Philippines has essentially one — UnionBank. BSP's Project Agila adds momentum but Big 3 have zero public crypto/tokenization.
GCash (Globe) and Maya (PLDT) are telco-fintech hybrids treating banking as a feature. The future may not be "banks" at all — it's financial services woven into platforms where 110M Filipinos live digitally.
Where the same 5-direction framework produces radically different competitive dynamics
Globally, embedded finance is emerging — Goldman powers Stripe Treasury, banks are becoming infrastructure. In the Philippines, it's already dominant: GCash (94M users) and Maya have already won the customer relationship. Philippine banks are 5+ years ahead of Western peers in experiencing the "invisible banking" shift.
Globally, multiple banks run production blockchain: JPMorgan ($2B/day), Citi (tokenized deposits), Wells Fargo + HSBC (FX settlement), all in the NY Fed PoC. In the Philippines, it's essentially a one-bank story — UnionBank — with the BSP's Project Agila as the only other meaningful activity. The widest gap between markets.
Global API leaders (Goldman, Citi) serve corporate treasury: $20T processed, enterprise ERP integrations. Philippine API leaders (UnionBank, RCBC) serve financial inclusion: 30M unbanked Filipinos via fintech partners, BaaS for PalawanPay, SSS microloans. Same architecture, completely different purpose.
BofA's Erica: 3B interactions, 50M users. Morgan Stanley: 98% advisor adoption. Wells Fargo: agentic AI to 215K employees. Philippine AI banking is still early — chatbot pilots, fraud detection, and GCash's GScore being the most advanced. PH banks are roughly 3–5 years behind on AI personalization at scale.
The Philippines' most powerful financial platforms — GCash (Globe Telecom) and Maya (PLDT/Smart) — are telco-backed. This structure doesn't exist in Western markets. It means the embedded finance battle in PH is between telcos-as-banks vs. banks-as-fintechs, not just banks vs. startups.
UnionBank ≈ JPMorgan (blockchain-first, all-direction innovation). RCBC ≈ Goldman Sachs (BaaS, invisible infrastructure, embedded). BPI ≈ Citigroup (API ecosystem, corporate connectivity). GCash ≈ What Apple Pay wants to become (super-app with banking as a feature).