GHL Group Berhad announced today that its Philippines arm has received approval for the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission to operated a lending business via its new unit, GHL Phlippines Financing Services Inc.

GHL who is traditionally known for its payments business has been seen diversifying its business of late. Towards the end of 2019, GHL similarly received the nod to operate its lending business in Malaysia and Thailand. Subsequent to that, they’ve entered into a partnership with Axiata’s micro-lending platform Aspirasi with the aim of “narrowing the financial inclusion gap” in Malaysia.

In early 2019, they’ve also partnered with an Australian fintech startup that offers “Pay Later” solutions to enable their merchants to offer interest-free monthly payments to their customer base.

Commenting on their newly launched operations, Danny Leong, Group CEO, GHL said,

“We are excited with our Philippine operations getting the go-ahead to start lending services to our merchant base. This is part of the group’s strategy to further value add to our merchants in addition to payment services.

COVID-19 has brought many challenges to many SME merchants and we hope to be able support them through the difficulties and to assist them to catch the recovery wave.”