Netbank has plugged direct account opening into JIA Finance’s lending app, letting Philippine small businesses sign up for invoice financing without ever leaving JIA’s platform. The Manila-based banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider announced the upgrade on LinkedIn this month, expanding a partnership the two firms first struck in February 2025 to channel loans through Netbank’s infrastructure.
That sounds like ordinary fintech plumbing. Look closer and JIA is only the newest name on a growing list of Philippine lenders, among them JuanHand, Salmon and Skyro, running their books through a single bank charter registered in Romblon, an island province far from Manila’s fintech towers.
Netbank Wires Its Rails Straight Into JIA’s App
Under the new arrangement, JIA Finance’s small and medium enterprise borrowers can open a Netbank account without leaving JIA’s own app or website. That single step used to require signing up separately, outside JIA’s platform.
Netbank said the integration also streamlines settlements for JIA’s invoice financing product, the service that lets SMEs convert unpaid receivables into upfront cash. The goal is faster onboarding with loan disbursement and repayment sitting inside one connected flow instead of several disconnected ones.
The upgrade builds directly on the loan-channeling deal the two firms signed in February 2025. Under that original arrangement, JIA assigned loans through Netbank’s infrastructure to scale its invoice financing business across the Philippines, according to a press release Netbank issued through Finextra at the time. Krizanne Ty, JIA Finance’s president and country head for the Philippines, said then that the arrangement would help the fintech deliver faster financing to Filipino small businesses.
Invoice financing is not a new idea. It has served as an alternative to collateral-based lending for years. But most Philippine banks still ask small business owners for property titles or equipment before extending credit, a barrier that has kept many small firms out of the formal lending system entirely.
A Rural Bank Charter From Romblon Runs the Back End
The bank actually sitting behind JIA’s app, and behind JuanHand’s, Salmon’s and Skyro’s, is registered as Netbank (A Rural Bank), Inc., chartered in Romblon province and regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the Philippine central bank). Its operating headquarters sit in Manila, while its banking license traces back to a small, community-chartered lender.
Founded in 2019 by David Paulo Dela Paz and Gus Poston, Netbank built its business on a simple pitch: fintechs and non-bank platforms get licensed accounts, payments, cards and lending under their own brand, without applying for a banking license themselves. Netbank calls the model “Partnership Based Banking.” Over the past few years, its partner roster has grown well beyond JIA, into consumer and SME lending, card issuing and loan servicing.
| Partner | Business Focus | Milestone With Netbank |
|---|---|---|
| JIA Finance | Invoice financing for SMEs | Loan-channeling deal launched February 2025; embedded account opening added in 2026 |
| JuanHand | Consumer lending | Partnership announced to reach underbanked borrowers, April 2025 |
| Discovery Credit Solutions | Loan servicing | Loan management integration announced, January 2025 |
| Thredd | Card issuing infrastructure | Cards-as-a-service partnership announced, December 2025 |
| Salmon | Digital lender and neobank | Raised US$100 million for banking and loan growth |
Elsewhere in the region, banks are striking similar tie-ups to handle the compliance side of embedded finance, including a compliance-focused embedded banking partnership between Vantage Bank and Cable. The pattern is the same everywhere: one licensed balance sheet, several branded apps sitting on top of it.
An 88% Revenue Jump Bankrolls the Next Phase
Netbank closed a Series B funding round in April 2026, led by Singapore-based venture capital firm Altara Ventures, with existing backers BeeNext, Kaya Founders, January Capital, Oak Drive Ventures and Boleh Ventures all returning. The company has not disclosed the round’s size.
The raise followed a strong year. Netbank reported 88% year-on-year revenue growth in FY2025, turned profitable for the first time, launched card issuing, expanded its accounts-as-a-service business and grew its active partner base, according to Fintech News Philippines’ coverage of the funding round.
- Broaden payment capabilities, including real-time disbursements, collections and cross-border rails
- Scale embedded lending configurations for partner platforms
- Deepen accounts and card infrastructure
- Invest in automation, risk systems and engineering hires
Netbank plans to put the new capital toward those four areas, rather than a single flashy product launch.
In plain terms, we aim to be the bank in the background.
Netbank put it that way in comments carried by IBS Intelligence’s report on the funding round, a fintech trade publication that flagged the raise as notable given a broader slowdown in Southeast Asian fintech funding. “A consistent theme across Southeast Asia is the lack of dependable financial infrastructure,” said Dave Ng, a general partner at Altara Ventures, which backs Series A and B companies across the region.
The SME Credit Gap Invoice Financing Is Built For
JIA’s pitch to Philippine small businesses only works because the credit gap it is filling is genuinely large. A 2017 assessment by the International Finance Corporation, cited by Manila-based venture firm Integra Partners, found the Philippines carries the largest MSME financing gap of any country it measured.
- $221 billion in estimated small business credit demand against just $15 billion in available formal credit supply
- 99.5% of Philippine business establishments are micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), providing roughly 63% of the country’s jobs
- 88% Netbank’s own year-on-year revenue growth in FY2025, a sign of how much volume is now moving through embedded lending rails
Collateral remains the core obstacle. Traditional lenders want property titles or fixed assets before they will approve a loan, which shuts out service businesses, renters and younger companies that have not yet built up hard assets. Invoice financing sidesteps that by lending against revenue a business has already earned but not yet collected.
This fits a broader shift already underway in how banks share data and control with the platforms sitting on top of them, a move some in the industry describe as open banking evolving into open finance. Netbank’s model, where the bank recedes into the background and the fintech owns the customer relationship, is a Philippine version of the same trend.
What Happens When One Bank Underwrites Everyone’s Rails?
Concentrating multiple lenders’ back ends inside one rural bank charter speeds up product launches and cuts costs for fintechs, but it also means a single institution’s risk systems, compliance team and balance sheet now stand behind a widening share of the country’s alternative credit. A stumble at Netbank would not stay contained to one app.
The Philippines’ formal banking system is already concentrated at the top, with a handful of large banks controlling most of the sector’s assets. Consumer-facing digital banks, meanwhile, are fighting hard just to stay afloat, as competition among new market entrants squeezes their margins. Netbank has taken a different route, avoiding the consumer deposit war entirely and instead becoming the plumbing several of those same competitors, and the lenders that serve their customers, depend on.
Netbank’s own funding announcement points to where the strain could show up first: automation and risk infrastructure were both named as priorities for the new capital, alongside engineering hires. Scaling credit risk controls across a growing list of partners, each with its own borrower base and underwriting logic, is a harder problem than adding another logo to a partnerships page.
JIA’s Borrowers Get a Faster Path to Cash Next
Netbank flagged this kind of upgrade back when the original partnership launched in February 2025, saying its next steps would include optimizing system performance and ensuring ongoing support for JIA’s operations. The embedded account opening rolled out this month looks like exactly that step delivered, a year and a half later.
The direction matches where the World Economic Forum has said embedded finance in Southeast Asia is heading: small sellers accessing invoice financing directly through the platforms they already use, rather than filling out a separate loan application somewhere else. For JIA’s borrowers, the practical change is fewer screens between an unpaid invoice and cash in an account. For Netbank, each new integration like this one adds another partner whose loan book, settlement flow and compliance now run through Romblon’s small rural bank charter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is banking as a service (BaaS)?
Banking as a service lets a licensed bank open accounts, move payments and book loans on behalf of another company’s app, under that company’s own brand. Netbank holds the Philippine banking license behind the scenes, while JIA Finance, JuanHand and Salmon supply the customer relationship and product design layered on top of it.
What is invoice financing?
Invoice financing lets a business borrow against invoices it has already issued but not yet been paid for, turning receivables sitting on the books into spendable cash rather than waiting for a customer’s payment to clear. JIA Finance built its entire Philippine lending product around this model for small and medium enterprises.
Is Netbank a licensed, regulated bank?
Yes. Netbank operates under a rural bank charter regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and deposits placed through its consumer app are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp up to ₱1,000,000 per depositor, according to the company’s own disclosures.
How much did Netbank raise in its Series B round?
Netbank has not disclosed the dollar amount of its Series B. The round was led by Altara Ventures, with full participation from five existing investors, BeeNext, Kaya Founders, January Capital, Oak Drive Ventures and Boleh Ventures, all of whom had backed the company’s earlier funding as well.
Which other Philippine fintechs run on Netbank’s infrastructure?
Besides JIA Finance, Netbank’s partner roster includes JuanHand and Salmon in lending, Skyro in consumer finance, Discovery Credit Solutions in loan servicing and Thredd in card issuing, alongside earlier partnerships with installment lender Akulaku and payroll platform Sprout Solutions.
