Maya Group Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo (left) speaks on the “AI-First Banking: Blueprints for the Future of Financial Institutions” panel during Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025 x StartmeupHK Festival, where he shared how Maya is using artificial intelligence to expand access to credit and build trust in financial services.
Maya took center stage at Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK Festival 2025 as it showcased how artificial intelligence is powering a new era of smarter, more inclusive digital banking for millions of Filipinos.
Speaking before global fintech innovators and banking executives, Maya Group Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo delivered a clear message: AI is no longer just a tool—it is the infrastructure reshaping the future of finance.
“AI is becoming the new infrastructure of finance,” Lo said. “At Maya, we use AI to understand people better, make credit more inclusive, and strengthen trust in every transaction.”
Backed by Maya Bank, the Philippines’ top digital bank, and Maya Philippines, the country’s leading payments processor, the platform has woven AI through every layer of its operations—from payments and savings to lending and fraud prevention. This integrated approach is enabling Maya to serve more Filipinos faster and more securely.
As of end-June 2025, Maya has onboarded over 8.2 million bank customers and released ₱152 billion in cumulative loans. Its AI models analyze thousands of behavioral and transactional signals to generate instant credit decisions, detect fraud before it happens, and manage risk dynamically. The system now handles tens of thousands of loan applications daily and has steadily reduced default rates since launching in 2022.
This progress is especially critical in a country where bank-issued credit remains out of reach for most. According to the BSP’s 2021 Financial Inclusion Survey, only 4 percent of adults with loans borrowed from banks, while 57 percent turned to informal lenders. Maya aims to close this gap by using AI not as a gatekeeper—but as an enabler.
“AI helps us design credit for inclusion, not exclusion,” Lo added. “It allows us to extend opportunities responsibly, making financial health part of everyday life, not a privilege for a few.”
Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025, organized with InvestHK and StartmeupHK, gathered more than 30,000 attendees and global speakers from industry leaders such as HSBC, Ant Group, Mastercard, and Maya. With the theme “Fintech Redefined,” this year’s event highlighted how AI, digital assets, and cross-border innovation are charting the next frontier of global finance.