TONIK
incumbent-based institutions . Instead , it has instantly been able to cater to the demands of an increasingly digital marketplace .
Krasnov explains : “ We were the recipients of the first digital bank licence from the central bank in the Philippines . That was actually the first digital bank licence to be ever granted in the region here , and we already launched on that , so we ' ve been operational now for a year . That actually makes us today the first and only so far operational digital bank licensee in Southeast Asia .”
The process has not been without its challenges , however , because the remit of the bank was so new . “ We ' ve faced challenges regarding the fluidity of the regulatory regime because our licence was a pilot one . We work together with a regulator to create the regulatory framework for what a digital bank licence should look like .”
Krasnov says there have also been obstacles to overcome with infrastructure . As the very first , fully operational , purely cloud-based bank in the Philippines , lots of coordination was required in terms of the regulatory framework which saw regulators working with Tonik ’ s launch team to ensure the systems were sound . “ A lot of technological work went into it with our vendors to make sure that that infrastructure is completely bulletproof and beyond bankgrade , so the people feel safe keeping their money in the cloud , as it were ,” he explains .
Launching Tonik during a lockdown While operating digitally and not having the burden of switching from a legacy system to an agile , digital platform , Tonik did have to launch in the midst of lockdowns that were particularly strict throughout Asia . That alone has brought its own challenges , as a number of the bank ’ s marketplaces haven ’ t been
184 May 2022