Will ASEAN expansion boost Peppermint's share price?

ASX-listed fintech Peppermint (ASX: PIL) could see its share price rise on efforts to bring its digital wallet solutions to potentially millions of unbanked households in Southeast Asia.

The fintech company recently extended its partnership with a leading Filipino healthcare organisation, in a move that could enable it to better leverage its electronic money issuer (EMI) license.

PIL has also entered a partnership with a major small-business association in the Filipino region of Mindanao, to provide a broad range of financial services to members.

PIL extends partnership with top Filipino health player

PIL recently announced that it had extended its contract with the Cooperative Health Management Federation (CHMF), one of the biggest health organisations in the Philippines.

CHMF, which also goes by the name One Coop Health, was established in 2014 following the merger of 13 leading health cooperatives. The group has ties with 825 healthcare providers and 185 cooperatives, covering nearly 58,000 policyholders.

The contract extension with CHMF will see PIL extend the provision of its proprietary healthcare management system for another two years. PIL first commenced its working relationship with CHMF back in September 2017.

Chris Kain, PIL managing director and CEO, highlighted the potential for the extended partnership to expand its fintech service offerings to local onsumers.

'CHMF has a captive audience of almost 58,000 policyholders and more than 825 health providers,' Kain said in a release.

'The deepening of the relationship with CHMF will allow us to make greater use of our EMI Licence (currently focused on lending and payments) to offer services to their loyal customers and providers much like we [are] currently doing with MASS-SPECC.'

PIL targets Southeast Asian digital banking market

A key focus for PIL is the use of digital solutions to improve financial inclusion for the large number of unbanked consumers across Southeast Asia.

According to figures from Mercuryo, 66% of people in the Philippines are unbanked, meaning they have insufficient access to modern financial services.

Other major economies in the region suffer from similar financial inclusion challenges, with 69% of Vietnamese citizens categorised as unbanked, as well as 51% of Indonesians.

PIL hopes to cater to the needs of unbanked micro-enterprises in Southeast Asia with its Bizmoto mobile app.

The app provides a range of services to micro-enterprises, including mobile payments, fund transfers, QR code functionality and digital wallets, as well as e-commerce options and delivery and logistics using accredited riders.

In order to boost the adoption of Bizmoto in the Philippines, PIL has entered a partnership with the MASS-SPECC Cooperative Center - a federation representing 343 cooperative enterprises with 3.4 million individual members in the Mindanao region.

In October 2022, PIL announced that its fully owned subsidiary Peppermint Bizmoto had entered a five-year exclusive agreement with MASS-SPECC for the provision of electronic money services.

The deal enables MASS-SPECC members to use the Bizmoto wallet for financial services including cash-in and cash-out transactions and direct transfers to banks.

In July of this year, PIL announced that it had completed the back-end integration of Bizmoto's EMI financial services with MASS-SPECC's Pinoy Coop mobile app. The company expects to earn 10c for every transaction completed via its partnership with MASS-SPECC.

PIL expects the provision of financial services including micro-enterprise loans to further boost Bizmoto's adoption, helping to improve financial inclusion for unbanked consumers.

The company now has plans to bring its fintech solutions to other emerging markets in Southeast Asia, following the successful launch of its services in the Philippines.

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