GCash, the country’s leading e-wallet system, said Tuesday more than 1 million customers are ready to invest in the stock market through its partnership with AB Capital Securities Inc. and the Philippine Stock Exchange.
GCash vice president and head of wealth management Jong Layug said during the partnership launch more than a million GCash users now invest in GInvest, an investment product in the GCash app.
“Using that as a barometer, we see more than a million who are ready to invest right now. The key to growing this number is further education around this new asset class that they will have access to,” Layug said.
GCash has 69 million customers.
PSE president Ramon Monzon said the partnership with AB Capital and GCash is a “game changer” for the Philippine stock market as this could boost investor base.
“This has the potential to double, triple or even quadruple the stock market’s investor base in a very short period of time,” Monzon said.
Monzon said the PSE was lagging behind regional peers in terms of investor count. There were only 1.62 million stock market accounts, of which 1.16 million were online accounts as of end-2021.
“While online trading has been instrumental in expanding the investors base, admittedly there is a need for catalyst to further accelerate this growth momentum. That catalyst hopefully will be GCash working together with PSE and AB Capital Securities,” Monzon said.
GCash president Martha Sazon said the partnership would also democratize access to financial services and make it easier for people to invest in local stocks.
“Together with the PSE and AB Capital, we will be transforming the way Filipinos are able to access financial opportunities whether they are savvy investors or just starting their financial journey,” Sazon said.