Bridging traditional and digital finance
Credit to Author: MA. GLAIZA LEE| Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2018 16:19:46 +0000
As new industry players aim to revolutionize the digital economy by bridging the traditional banking and the digital currency industries and bringing new liquidity to Philippine economy, a new player has just entered the Philippine market.
“We began this journey with a simple goal — to bridge the industry chasm and bring digital currencies and its benefits into the mainstream. To achieve this, we partner with regulators, auditors, and academe to define the next evolution of the digital token economy,” said Tim Ying, CEO and co-founder of Global Overseas Worker Exchange (GOW Exchange), a new digital currency service provider licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) under its subsidiary ETranss Remittance International Corp. (ETranss).
After working in the banking industry for more than 15 years, Tim and his partner, GOW COO William Sung, saw first hand the shortcomings of the financial industry in serving the underserved markets and customers, especially the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). This inspired Tim and Will to establish the company and address the shortcoming through new and evolving technology.
They established ETranss to help the OFWs in Hong Kong by offering cheaper and faster cross-border remittance. “We had fierce competition in Hong Kong when we first went there as business. So, we decided how can we lower the cost bit transaction. In a natural place, what we look into was quick tape. Instead of going to other exchange, why don’t we start exchanging?” shared Tim who added that since they have been helping the OFWs, it was only natural for them to move and grow their business in the Philippines.
Stability and governance are critical in this industry. They sought the support of Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the BSP to make the process easier for their clientele. GOW Exchange is the parent and holding company of ETranss and China Money Trade (CMT). ETranss is registered with the Philippines SEC and a licensed Virtual Currency Exchange (VCE) by the BSP.
“The industry is still a nascent industry. So in mini markets, outside the Philippines, it’s still very much unregulated. For an industry to flourish and grow, there needs to be regulations, service standards that are in place in terms of helping businesses to operate and that’s what we provide, it allows us to set industry standards. So having that stamp of trust from the Central Bank and SEC, it helps us to be able to provide trust and stability, it’s absolutely very critical,” said Tim.
Licensed to provide exchange services between legal fiat and digital currencies, GOW will be offering a variety of products and services that give its customers greater variety and real-world application. As a provider of feedback on the SEC’s draft ICO policy and respondent to the draft in August, GOW plays a key role in spearheading best practices and standards for STO (Security Token Offerings) usage.
“We have traditionally two sets of consumers — retail consumers, the average joe; trades and transacts tokens, and then we have institutional consumers, which are corporate and financial institutions. We provide a platform for these two consumer groups. These guys can trade and start exchange. At the same time, they can trade on a digital crypto exchange. Our platform allows what we have in traditional financial sense. We bring the ability for a set of financial services to be provided at a digital level to both retail and institutional customers,” Will said.
In layman’s term — “When you think about going to a 7-11 store, you can pay using cash or use the Mastercards, that is traditional cash. Now, you can pay with your G-Cash Wallet, that’s digital. We are taking that extent from here, to here. If you think about it, yes, we are bridging that gap. The end game is a token of lifestyle, where you can start trading and using tokens to actually pay for goods and pay wages. That’s the way that the world is leaning towards. We are highlighting that platform in order for that to happen,” Will explained.
By setting the standard, GOW spearheads and trailblazes the wave for the industry to be able to set example for regulators of the market and other players of the industry on how we should conduct a business, how we should be protecting consumers, and how can we make it easier to consumers. It allows consumers from all facets to be able to access the market industry in a secure compliant and stable manner.
“It comes down to a very simple goal; is to act as the bridge between traditional finance and digital finance. Right now as it stands, the two ecosystems are separated. Traditional finance and traditional banking operate on its own. What we endeavor to do and aim to accomplish is to connect the two, to become the bridge. And to be able to bring new liquidity from traditional banking and traditional finance,” Tim said.
Will observed that emerging markets like the Philippines have been more welcoming of the new technology, compared to patron markets or countries that have legislation that is already in place.
“In countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore or United Kingdom, where there is so much governance for 50-60 years of studying institution, there’s more to lose so they are more risk averse. Emerging markets such as the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries have less to lose, but they are more embracing of the technology,” said Will.
Where do you see GOW developing within the next years?
“People think about this digital currency as a specific asset class, but for us, digital assets are not a separate asset class. Digital assets, in our view, are the underlying infrastructure, underlying utility for all asset classes. So all of the asset classes that we see today — stocks, gold, any type of assets, even reward points and loyalty points will become digital assets in the future, and will be under scribe through block chain utility. Our view is a little bit different than other people’s view that it’s a specific asset, it’s not, its underlying infrastructure for all asset classes in the future,” Tim said.
Will concluded: “GOW depends on the industry and technology. We can’t control the fate of the development blockchain. We can’t control the legislation policies that is defined by the jurisdiction. What we can do, what we continue to do, is to push for that vision to materialize in working with the regulators, the banks, to what the consumer needs. And we will evolve.”
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