MANILA, Philippines — Philippine consumer finance platform Billease has doubled its credit facility with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) to ₱1 billion, expanding a one-year lending relationship into a comprehensive, multi-product banking partnership.
The expanded arrangement broadens the alliance between the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider and the universal bank beyond term lending into corporate cash management, savings (CASA), and foreign exchange (FX) services. The deal highlights a growing trend of top-tier local banks deepening integration with profitable, fast-growing domestic fintech operators.
The structure introduces a novel template for local fintech asset securitization. It stands among the first in the country to utilize the Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR)—a centralized movable-asset registry operated by the Land Registration Authority under the Personal Property Security Act—to establish a registered, perfected security interest over Billease’s consumer loan receivables.
The security framework provides RCBC with an enforceable, first-ranking claim over a granular pool of assets, designed to deliver transparent downside protection throughout the facility’s tenure. Key structural elements include:
- Registered and perfected security interests executed via the PPSR
- Over-collateralized loan-to-value requirements
- Dynamic, periodic refreshing of the underlying collateral asset pool
- A clearly defined payment waterfall mechanism
“Doubling our facility with RCBC within a year and broadening it well beyond lending into cash management and FX reflects the kind of confidence that only comes from a track record both sides can underwrite,” said Garret Go, CFO of Billease.
“The strongest funding relationships are built on transparency and performance, not promises, and RCBC has been an excellent partner in structuring something new for this market.”
The enlarged facility comes on the heels of strong financial performance for the fintech lender. On an audited consolidated basis, Billease increased its FY2025 revenue by more than 80% to ₱8.7 billion, generating a net profit of ₱750 million.
The performance represents the company’s third consecutive year of bottom-line profitability, standing out against broader global trends in the BNPL sector.
The company’s audited balance sheet highlights include:
- Loan Portfolio: Expanded by over 75% to approximately ₱11.3 billion
- Total Assets: Reached ₱13.3 billion
- User Growth: Onboarding over 150,000 new customers monthly
- Capital Position: Total equity reached roughly ₱5.6 billion against total borrowings of ₱6.7 billion as of December 31, 2025, maintaining a conservative debt-to-equity ratio near 1x
Billease remains founder-led under co-founders Georg Steiger, Huyen Nguyen, and Ritche Weekun, who maintain operational control and majority ownership.
Corporate governance is overseen by a board chaired by former Philippine Secretary of Finance Jose Isidro “Lito” Camacho, alongside board member Atul Malik, a senior advisor at TPG with three decades of Asian financial services experience who joined in 2025.
The board structure follows Billease’s 2024 Series C round, which raised ₱4.3 billion led by TPG’s The Rise Fund alongside Burda Principal Investments.
“We don’t view 2025 as a peak, we view it as evidence that the platform works, and that there is significant underlying demand for affordable, well-structured credit in this country,” said Georg Steiger, CEO and Co-Founder of Billease.
“The business scales without compromising on underwriting standards. Facilities like this one let us keep funding that growth locally, on improving terms, and the registry-backed, over-collateralized structure we built with RCBC is one we believe more Philippine banks can use.”
The expanded transaction supports Billease’s long-term strategy to shift funding toward domestic banking partners, lower reliance on offshore debt, and optimize capital costs. The move also complements the platform’s entry into regulated banking following its recent acquisition of a rural bank, an action intended to enhance its future deposit-taking capabilities and product portfolio.
“This expanded partnership reflects RCBC’s confidence in Billease’s performance and in the quality of its underwriting,” said Elizabeth Coronel, Institutional Banking Group Head of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.
“By anchoring the facility in a registered, over-collateralized security through the Personal Property Security Registry, we have built a transparent, well-protected structure that we believe can serve as a model for how Philippine banks support responsible, fast-growing fintech lenders.”
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