THE PHILIPPINES’ digital lending market could surpass $1 billion by the second half of the year, with growth to be driven by high demand for online financial services, a study by Digido showed.

This is bigger than Digido’s estimate of a $796-million value at end-2024 and the $693 million recorded in 2023, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Philippines’ digital lending market has been growing at an average of 28% or $68 million annually from 2013 to 2023, it added.

“Our latest findings affirm the majority of Filipinos’ growing pivot towards digital sources of credit as part of their personal finance management. We are optimistic that these lending segments will be able to maintain their high growth rates in view of its accessibility for the financially underserved, progressive government support and various projects promoting further digitalization,” Digido Business Development Manager Rose Arreco said.

“This growth trend is also largely determined by the fact that a third of the country’s population is from Generation Z — a segment certainly ready to fully accept innovative solutions in the field of financial technologies for mobile applications,” Ms. Arreco added.

The online lending market includes digital banks and non-bank digital lenders.

Broken down, nonbank digital lenders are expected to make up 55.2% of the market by the second half of this year for a $556.5-million value.

On the other hand, digital banks are seen to have a 44.8% share equivalent to $451 million.

Meanwhile, Digido said the total number of application downloads for both nonbank digital lenders and digital banks likely grew by 56.4% year on year to 73.5 million in 2024 as app downloads in the first 10 months already hit 58.9 million. — AMCS