the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  When Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group bought into Mynt , the parent of GCash, the Japanese banking giant was not merely buying a slice of a Philippine fintech. It was buying a second chance at a familiar thesis: that a well-capitalized Japanese lender can ride the rise of consumer finance in one of Southeast Asia’s most underbanked, mobile-first economies. The price was not small. MUFG’s investment gave it an 8% direct stake in Mynt , valuing the GCash operator at about US$5 billion , more than double Mynt’s previous US$2 billion valuation from its 2021 round. Reports put MUFG’s investment at roughly US$393 million to US$400 million , or about ₱23.3 billion .  The question is whether this GCash bet will age better than MUFG’s earlier Philippine bank wager. In 2016, MUFG, then through The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ , invested ₱36.9 billion in Security Bank Corporation , buying 150.7 million newly issued common shares at ₱245 each and 200 million preferred shares at ₱0.10 ...

Mynt, the company behind GCash, is showing the power of platform finance: fewer branches, more transactions, and far better profit conversion than two established banks. In 1Q26, it generated more revenue, more than twice the profit, and a much fatter margin than RCBC and Security Bank.   A curious thing happened in Philippine finance in the first quarter of 2026. Two established universal banks, RCBC and Security Bank , each  generated roughly ₱17bn in operating income and about ₱2.7bn in net income. Mynt , the parent company of GCash , reported higher revenue of ₱20.9bn and net income of ₱5.6bn.  The comparison is not perfect. Banks and fintech platforms do different things. RCBC and Security Bank take deposits, make loans, manage capital, absorb credit losses, and operate within a dense regulatory framework. Mynt sits at the heart of the daily financial habits of millions of mobile users. Yet the contrast is revealing. In 1Q26, Mynt was not merely bigger than these tw...

  Security Bank widened its net interest margin and lifted core spread income in the first quarter, but higher credit-loss provisions, trading and foreign-exchange losses, and unrealized FVOCI mark-to-market losses kept the results from becoming a clean earnings-growth story. For a bank, a wider net interest margin is usually the closest thing to good weather. Loans and securities earn more than deposits and borrowings cost; the balance sheet breathes easier; profits should follow. In the first quarter of 2026, Security Bank Corporation seemed to enjoy just such a climate. Its net interest margin widened to 5.36% , from 4.51% a year earlier, while net interest income jumped 27.6% to ₱15.16bn . Interest income rose to ₱19.92bn , but the larger story was on the funding side: interest expense fell to ₱4.76bn from ₱6.76bn . Yet the weather did not hold. The bank’s bottom line slipped. Net income fell to ₱2.70bn , down from ₱2.82bn a year earlier; earnings per share declined to ₱3.5...