Financial Inclusion Leaders Inaugurate first Oradian Community Summit

Leaders from over 30 visionary financial institutions gathered at the New World Hotel in Makati for Oradian’s first Community Summit to share experiences, know-how and global best practices in financial inclusion. More than 80 representatives of these financial institutions engaged in knowledge-sharing as well as celebrating their recent growth.
Driven by a shared vision, members of the Oradian Community provide individuals with access to financial services in the most remote areas of the Philippines. These institutions deliver financial services through Oradian’s platform Instafin, a cloud-based core banking system that enables efficiency and growth.

The summit emphasized the digital transformation journey that Oradian offers and included an interactive knowledge building session with attending members. The Oradian journey enables financial institutions to quickly go digital, reducing the need for costly manual processes and time-consuming administration, while building internal capability with hands-on training.

“For us, customer success means ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes using Oradian’s platform and services. Additionally, we empower financial institutions with methodology, knowledge and best practices to ensure the success of onboarding them to our platform. During the entire journey with our customers, we aim to predict changes in their environment by analyzing their business needs and to offer services that help them achieve their strategic goals.” commented Ivana Tomisic, Oradian’s Head of Global Account Management and Customer Support Lead.

At the summit, Oradian officially launched two of its recently designed Additional Services: the Instafin Field Officer App and Instafin Messaging. Oradian’s Field Officer App is built specifically for the needs of financial institutions’ field officers who travel to hard-to-reach areas to provide financial services. Instafin Messaging enables financial institutions to send messages directly and automatically to their clients detailing their account activity, which has been found to lead to stronger loan portfolio performance as a result of better relationship engagement with clients.

“Cloud banking is fast-tracking our ability to provide more financial services to underserved individuals. Our business has seen outstanding results, the main benefits being our increasing operational efficiency and the quality of our data. With Oradian’s Additional Services, our field officers save 70% of the time they used to spend collecting data manually. Since partnering with Oradian, we have been able to focus our resources on developing our core business.” stated Estrella Andres, Vice President of ASHI, who presented ASHI’s success story at the summit.

Earlier in February, Cantilan Bank, whose representatives also participated at Oradian’s Community Summit, became the Philippines’ first financial institution regulated by the Bangko Sentral NG Pilipinas (BSP) to leverage Oradian’s cloud banking system. Cantilan Bank’s pioneering of cloud-based technology was supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The successful partnership serves as a prime example for all participating financial institutions striving toward boosting financial inclusion and strengthening the community.

Within three years in the Philippines, Oradian has built a community of more than 45 visionary financial institutions in the Philippines who are embracing technology to reach the country’s bold financial inclusion targets and expand their client bases.

Antonio Separovic, Co-founder and CEO of Oradian: “Since our start, our vision has been to go beyond offering software. In executing this vision, we have grown side by side with many of you through strategic projects, ongoing community partnerships and truly delivering financial inclusion. 

In only four years, through our pioneering efforts, Oradian has established a dominant position in the market. Now, we are proud to be the first to provide cloud technology for a regulated bank in the Philippines. Together, we have grown rapidly and achieved outstanding results and we will leverage this success to continue increasing financial inclusion with our partners. Thank you for being part of the community.”

With a fully engaged audience of financial inclusion leaders, Oradian’s Community Summit enabled unprecedented knowledge sharing that will bring global best practices to underserved communities throughout rural provinces.

Cebuana Lhuillier Alternative Learning System : ALS like no other

Since the renaming of PJ Lhuillier Foundation into the Cebuana Lhuillier foundation, it has since made education accessible to those who need it through donation of classrooms, learning centers, conference rooms, and buildings to be utilized for furthering learning for those who need and want it.

For many years now, Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc. (CLFI) has consistently administered poverty-alleviation measures to the underserved and disadvantaged individuals and sectors nationwide. Following the personal philosophy of its President and CEO, Jean Henri Lhuillier which is to “Always Love Schooling”, part of CLFI’s major thrust in education is the  implementation of the Alternative Learning System or ALS along with three other initiatives that emphasize further the value of education; Nationwide Scholarship Program, Spiritual and Social Enhancement Program, and Special Projects on Education.

“The foundation has always espoused the company’s and my personal advocacy of continuing the pursuit of learning, I am more than elated to see this advocacy into fruition through the foundation’s many extensive efforts on education.” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

Jean Henri Lhuillier,

 Cebuana Lhuillier’s President and CEO 

Stands in the hallway of the newly constructed Northern Tacloban City National High School Sports building in 2016. 

The ALS program was established in 2013 in cooperation with the Department of Education, the program aims to provide out-of-school youth and adults with Academic, Livelihood, Spiritual and Social Education in the elementary and secondary levels. Cebuana Lhuillier’s ALS program differs from the usual ALS offered because it incorporates the five functional fields of knowledge or FILDS which stand for Financial Literacy, ICT Competitiveness, Livelihood, Disaster Resilience, and Sports Development and as of the last quarter of 2018, CLFI has already opened 79 ALS centers.

Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc., puts prime on equipping ALS students with the financial literacy as it is a company that puts forward the advocacy of financial inclusion for all Filipinos. The ALS program also conducts livelihood trainings in the field of hospitality management for students who need training in the said field.

More so, CLFI ensures that its ALS centers are up-to-date with the latest equipment. Through the years, CLFI has given its centers with laptops, projectors with screens, printers, USBs, and has cared for the reproduction of modules and reviewers used by the students.

CLFI also provides buildings in support for its ALS programs among the classrooms, centers and halls donated by Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation is the Ambassador PJ Lhuillier Lecture Room at the University of the Philippines Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business which serves as a classroom for the degree program’s students. Another is the Ambassador Philippe Jones Lhuillier Conference Room at the De La Salle University in Manila where workshops, meetings, community engagement get-togethers, and symposiums are being held regularly. Also made available to students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines is the PUP-CLFI E-learning center worth 2 million pesos which houses 21 desktop computers and contains 400 select e-book titles all free for use of the students.

Added to the centers and classrooms sponsored by the foundation is the Northern Tacloban City National High School Sports Building which is a two-storey building with six classrooms two of which are dedicated to classes for the Alternative Learning System. Lastly, among the many donations of CLFI as support for education for all, the Edna Lhuillier Multi-Purpose Hall in Bais City, Negros Oriental serves as a library where most of the scholars of CLFI and ALS learners come to conduct research among the numerous book titles available. It is also being used for seminars and workshops involving reformed drug addicts in the city of Bais, as well as a hub for Bais’ senior citizens.

CLFI, in partnership with DepEd aims to unveil 20 more centers so that more out of school youth have access to learning. 

Because of the commitment of CLFI, ALS learners from CLFI-backed classrooms have posted multiple milestones through the years. These include beating the national average of the Accreditation and Equivalency test for two straight years and producing a learner which scored 100% on the 2014 Accreditation and Equivalency test. By end of 2019, the CLFI-backed ALS program has produced close to 10,000 learners nationwide. While in the 2017 Accreditation and Equivalency test, despite the changes in the passing score for ALS A&E test takers, which saw a low turnout of 15.6%, the A&E test takers from Cebuana Lhuillier ALS centers were able to have a turnout of 49% - higher than the national average of 15.6%.

With the rising demands of today, the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc., with its bold mission of empowering the disadvantaged through giving access to education via its ALS program will surely combat the challenges of a nation gripped by poverty.