Philippine-based digital bank Maya has launched a new credit programme meant to encourage micro, small and medium enterprises ( MSMEs ) like market vendors and public transport drivers to accept digital payments through QR codes. 

Maya’s new Paleng-Kita initiative, which builds on the Paleng-QR Ph programme of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central bank, and Department of the Interior and Local Government, aims to onboard MSME vendors and drivers to the QR Ph payment system. Paleng-Kita is a play on the Filipino word palengke, or market.

Maya, as well as digital wallet PayMaya, is owned by Voyager Innovations, itself a joint venture among Philippine telco giant PLDT, Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, and International Finance Corp. 

Under Maya’s Paleng-Kita programme, merchants who use the Maya app to accept digital payments through QR Ph will be eligible for small loans under Maya Advance, the digital bank’s credit loan system. 

The BSP’s QR Ph is an interoperable common QR programme which allows participating banks and non-bank electronic money issuers ( EMI ), as well as individual users to receive payments through Instapay, via a Quick Response ( QR ) code.

Eligible merchants for Paleng-Kita can avail themselves of loans starting at 3,000 pesos ( US$53.96 ), and will be approved based on transaction history and other data, without the need for collateral or any application paperwork. 

AI scoring system

Maya Group president and Maya Bank co-founder Shailesh Baidwan says Maya will use an AI-driven scoring system to assess creditworthiness.

“By using their cashless payment history, we can offer them fair, transparent credit,” Baidwan says, adding that the programme will allow access to small vendors and transport drivers, a lot of whom have never had access to formal credit.

Renan Santiago, Maya’s head of MSME business, adds that the scheme uses vendors and drivers’ digital payment activity to make finance “more accessible, more relevant, and more empowering for everyday Filipinos”, while also pushing the BSP’s financial inclusion agenda. 

“We’re not just offering credit – we’re recognizing the real work of vendors and drivers who keep the economy going,” Santiago adds.

Citing data from the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry, Maya says only about 4% of the country’s total bank loans go to MSMEs, despite MSMEs making up 99% of businesses in the country. 

The Paleng-Kita launch comes about a month after Maya announced that it had achieved net income profitability in the first quarter of 2025, largely on the back of significant lending activity, as well as healthy deposits and peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant payments. Maya is one of six fully digital banks licensed by the BSP in the Philippines.