Philippines Partners with GFTN to Drive Fintech Innovation and AI Talent Development

THE GLOBAL Finance and Technology Network (GFTN) said it is forming a long-term partnership with the Philippines to help bolster financial technology innovation in the Philippines. The Singapore-headquartered policy advisory organization said the partnership hopes to strengthen the Philippines’ role in shaping inclusive financial innovation across ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), advancing financial health, and developing AI-ready talent, FinTech Alliance PH Chairman Angelito M. Villanueva said on Tuesday in a speech at the ASEAN Tech Summit Manila 2026. The discussion sought to explore the standard for determining whether applicants can be deemed an “AI native” for whatever roles they may be seeking to fill, he told reporters on the sidelines of the event. The GFTN will also partner with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to develop a five-year artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap to equip young Filipinos with globally recognized AI and digital finance skills and connecting them to GFPN’s ecosystem across more than 140 countries. Mr. Villanueva said the roadmap will align with the central bank’s own AI governance framework issued at the end of last month. “The whole idea is that eventually all BSIs (BSP-supervised institutions) would also have to come up with their respective AI frameworks that are aligned with the BSP’s. So, it’s more of the governance framework across all BSIs. Those are the things that we were looking at.” The GFTN will also bring its flagship select series to Manila in partnership with the BSP, a hackathon that will bring together policy leaders to tackle topics such as inclusive payments, AI governance, agentic commerce, financial resilience, and open finance. The two institutions will also launch the ASEAN Financial Health Challenge 2026 which will categorize pilots and public-private collaboration, Mr. Villanueva said. “By 2030, the most important financial transaction in this region may not involve a human being at all. It will be an AI agent acting on someone’s behalf, settling instantly in tokenized value, protected by a security layer nobody has to see or think about,” he said. — Aaron Michael C. Sy