GCash, the mobile wallet of Globe, said Thursday it secured the green light from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to use the e-wallet overseas using international SIM cards.
“We continue to make a difference in Filipinos’ lives by making financial services easier and more accessible to our now 76 million-strong registered users. With around 10 million Filipinos living abroad, we want them to also be able to take advantage of GCash services even as they use international SIMs,” GCash president and chief executive Martha Sazon said.
“As more people put their trust in GCash, we strive to remove more barriers and create a better experience for all,” she said.
Under the beta launch of GCash Overseas on Feb. 16, only the first 1,000 users from Japan, Australia and Italy could access GCash with an international SIM card.
Once they’re fully verified, Filipinos overseas regardless of their SIM card could begin signing up for GCash and support their families back home by sending money for free (GCash-to-GCash), paying for bills on time and instantly buying them load credits with just a few taps on the app.
The beta mode will run for a limited time, while the full launch is expected later this year.
GCash has also been doubling down on its international expansion through partnership with global payments platform, Alipay+.
Aside from GCash Overseas, it can now be used to pay in select merchants across countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Qatar as well as top European destinations like the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.
GCash offers users a wide variety of accessible financial products and services such as sending money, buying load and paying bills. Users can also explore other innovative financial services to jumpstart their journey towards their financial goals through GSave, GInsure and GInvest.
Mynt, the operator of GCash, became the country’s first unicorn or privately-held startup company with a value of over $1 billion in November 2021, after it raised more than $300 million in its latest funding round from new and existing investors to fund aggressive expansion.
The investment round, which brought Mynt’s value to over $2 billion, was led by global investment giant Warburg Pincus, New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and Bow Wave Capital, one of Mynt’s investors.