by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 28, 2022 | Business
For playing a central role in financially empowering its nearly 70 million users, GCash, the Philippines’ leading finance app, again makes a mark on the global financial technology industry as its president and CEO, Martha Sazon was included in The Financial Technology Report’s list of top 25 women leaders in fintech.
“I’m honored to join other amazing women leaders in the Financial Technology Report’s annual list. This recognition is a testament to GCash’s positive impact on the lives of our millions of customers. It also shows that women, if given the opportunity and platform to shine, can be great leaders for various organizations, especially in this increasingly more digital world,” said Sazon. “This achievement will spur us to further push the envelope in introducing more meaningful digital financial solutions and making sure nobody gets left behind in the digital economy.”
The Financial Technology Report is a New York City-based news agency covering business, investment activity, and corporate actions related to the financial technology industry. It describes itself as, “run by a seasoned team of editors, writers, and media professionals highly knowledgeable on financial technology and the various companies, executives, and investors that make up the sector.”
In an article on its website, the Financial Technology Report said, “thousands of new fintechs are launched each year, but only a small percentage demonstrates the staying power to last in such a competitive market. While many begin with truly great ideas, it takes much more to build a successful company. To make it in the long run, fintechs need to acquire financial support, get the word out through marketing, and constantly be innovating—not to mention ensuring that their operations run efficiently and that they remain in compliance with regulations. And for all of these necessities, great leaders are essential.”
Sazon was appointed as CEO of GCash at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Her focus on customer centricity resulted in GCash becoming a lifeline to millions of Filipinos during a time when many lost their jobs. Under Sazon’s leadership, GCash has become the Philippines’ first and only “duacorn,” or a company with a valuation of $2 billion. It’s also become the country’s biggest e-wallet with a registered user base of nearly 70 million.
Sazon has also doubled down on making sure GCash is able to make Filipinos’ everyday lives better enabling the fintech firm to provide meaningful digital finance solutions that empower people and organizations – helping 63% of Filipinos who are unbanked.
Prior to leading GCash, Sazon had 20 years of experience in various fast-moving consumer goods industries like food, pharmaceuticals, personal care, and telecommunications. She spent 12 years at Globe Telecom, the largest mobile network in the Philippines, where she headed the Broadband business and pioneered many breakthroughs and achievements for a wide array of products.
Previously, Sazon was also named “Philippines: CEO of the Year” at the IDC Future Enterprise Awards 2021. Earlier in 2022, she was recognized as a “Master Innovator for Digital Transformation Innovation” during the 2nd Annual Mansmith Innovation Awards and Summit.
About GCash
GCash (G-Xchange, Inc.) is the #1 Finance App in the Philippines. Through the GCash App, 69M registered users can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 1,600 partner billers nationwide; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 5.2M partner merchants and social sellers; and get access to savings, credit, loans, insurance and invest money, and so much more, all at the convenience of their smartphones. GCash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.), the first and only duacorn in the Philippines.
GCash was recognized by The Asian Banker (TAB) and by the IDC in 2021 for its outstanding digital financial inclusion programs.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 28, 2022 | Book Reviews
I was going through Goodnovel for something new to read when I stumbled upon Taming My Sexy Personal Assistant by HDallywrites. The title intrigued me … was this going to be a male or female POV? Who is the personal assistant? While it is common for the PA to be female, it isn’t always the case.
Before I knew it I got sucked into the story because of how different the approach was. First of all, our lead female character, Skylar, is sexy as hell and loves sex. She shuns relationships and favors one-night stands once a week and never repeats. Our lead male, Luca, is a billionaire and Skylar’s boss. In contrast, he is a one-woman-man. He has not been involved with anyone casually or otherwise in months.
Circumstances lead to Skylar and Luca becoming more than PA and boss and the sexual tension is high as the story progresses. Getting involved is not as simple as it seems as Luca insists that if they start something, it will not just be a one-night stand and Skylar is wary of that.
Storywise, this is developing wonderfully, and it isn’t even completed yet! However, I must call out the author for being careless. Not only can he/she/they not keep track of character names (Skylar is sometimes called Luca) he/she/they also often lose track of who is talking and use the wrong pronouns a lot. He/she/they also tend to use BIG words that would make a reader call up a dictionary or Google just to figure out what it means. Sometimes we could figure it out based on context, but not all the time.
If you can get passed all of that, you should be able to enjoy this book. I admit that I find it annoying but I just keep a notebook handy where I keep track of all the stuff that makes my teeth ache referencing the chapter so I could revisit it later. Hopefully, later I can find the author on social media and we could converse online about this story.
Taming My Sexy Personal Assistant by HDallywrites is really steamy and the story development is pretty good! You can find this story on Goodnovel where it is categorized as a billionaire romance. This is a story worth printing on paper (after it has been proofread).
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 27, 2022 | Business
Sterling Bank of Asia President and CEO, Mr. Cecilio San Pedro during the 2022 Outstanding BSP Stakeholders Appreciation Ceremonies
Sterling Bank of Asia (SBA), one of the country’s leading thrift banks, was recognized by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) during the “2022 Outstanding BSP Stakeholders Appreciation Ceremonies” held last November 29 at the BSP Assembly Hall.
BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla, in his message, recognized both the public and private sectors for their contribution to the implementation of appropriate, responsive, and well-calibrated policy actions.
SBA is the only savings bank among the nine award recipients from BSP’s head office for its outstanding participation in BSP’s Cash Service Alliance (CSA).
“We are honored to be recognized by the BSP for our strong commitment to the development and protection of the financial services industry,” said Cecilio Paul San Pedro, President & CEO of Sterling Bank of Asia. “This award is an affirmation of hard work and dedication in improving the financial well-being of our clients and every Filipino,” San Pedro added.
For more information, visit https://www.sterlingbankasia.com/.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 27, 2022 | Discounts, Sales, and Giveaways
Get ready to greet the new year with a bang as GCash is giving buy load users a chance to win up to P300,000 in the last draw of its Lucky Load promo, which gives customers a chance to win a portion of a weekly pot prize by purchasing load and playing their earned tickets.
In the past weeks from November 21, 2022, thirteen buy load users have already won thousands of pesos, making their Christmas holidays a merrier experience, indeed!
GCash customers just need to keep on using the Buy Load feature until December 28, 2022, so that they get one ticket entry for every P50. Participants should bear in mind that the number of tickets will be rounded down. For example, if the load amount is P70 or P99, this will only earn you one ticket entry. So, why not spend some more and save that load for when you need it?
Once a GCash user gets the ticket, they can select 6 icons from a roster of 30 icons. After picking the six icons, the user can submit the ticket entry. To win, a player must have six matched icons, in no particular order, to the winning draw.
For the past weeks, the prize of P150,000 has been divided equally among all users with the corresponding number of matched icons. And since there were no winners during the 4th weekly draw, the prize was added to the pot of the final draw.
If there are still no winners during the last draw, the remaining pot prize will be raffled off to 500 lucky winners on December 29, 2022. Winners will be posted on the GCash official Facebook page on or before January 10, 2023.
Thanks to GCash, anyone can get a chance to enjoy even better holidays with more money to spend on shopping, travel, or some self-care, that’s why it’s important to buy more load to earn more tickets and have more chances to win up to P300,000.
The GCash app is available for free on the Google Play Store, App Store, and HuaweiApp Gallery. For more information, visit www.gcash.com.
About GCash
GCash (G-Xchange, Inc.) is the #1 Finance App in the Philippines. Through the GCash App, 71M registered users can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 1,600 partner billers nationwide; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 5.2M partner merchants and social sellers; and get access to savings, credit, loans, insurance and invest money, and so much more, all at the convenience of their smartphones. GCash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.), the first and only duacorn in the Philippines.
GCash was recognized by The Asian Banker (TAB) and by the IDC in 2021 for its outstanding digital financial inclusion programs.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Dec 26, 2022 | Bon Appetit
The Mango Float is a popular dessert during parties. I’ve heard it referred to as a Mango Graham cake because of its ingredients, I suppose. This dessert is easy to make and disappears quickly! I always make sure to make space in my tummy when I know it is on the menu.
Will any mango do?
If you live in the Philippines you know that there are several types of mangoes but not all of them will go well as an ice cream cake, which is technically what this dish is. The type of mango we use for the mango float is the one we call kalabaw. I seriously have no idea why it is named after an animal but among all mango varieties, this is the one that is very sour while it is green and super sweet when it is yellow and ripe.
The secret to a really good mango float is … the mangoes have to be very sweet. And the best way to find out is to taste it. Just take a slice and eat that. From my experience, though, you should be able to tell how sweet it is even as you are peeling it. In my case, if I start to salivate I already know it will be too sour to put in the dish but perfect to munch on later.
What cream to use?
All-purpose cream is what I used for this recipe but if you have whipping cream (or whipped cream) then that will do as well. There are several brands in the market to choose from such as Anchor, Emborg, President, Arla, etc. I prefer regular all-purpose cream because 1) it’s cheaper and 2) it is available everywhere. In addition, I can easily whip the cream myself with a stand mixer.
Can I use sugar instead of condensed milk?
Truly, what you combine is up to you but from my experience, the condensed milk not only serves as a sweetener but is also a binder since it is quite thick.
Graham crackers
For this recipe I would recommend having the Graham crackers two ways … in cookie form and crushed. You can find both versions easily in the grocery store. For the layers, we will use the cookies but for the toppings, we will use the crushed Grahams. This is honestly more for aesthetics than anything else but I also like the texture of the crushed Grahams. 🙂
Here is my take on this dish.
Mango float
A simple no-bake dessert that is always a hit at gatherings. The most challenging task for most is layering.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Filipino
Keyword: cream-based, graham crackers, mango
stand mixer (optional)
mixing bowl
spatula
1 9x13 pan
- 500 ml cream
- 250 ml condensed milk
- Graham crackers
- crushed Graham crackers
- 2 to 3 pieces ripe mangoes, sliced thinly
Place the cream in a bowl, and mix it until it is smooth and not lumpy. Add the condensed milk and fold using a spatula.
Put some of the cream mixture in the tray and spread evenly.
Place a layer of Graham crackers (without overlapping) to cover.
Put some cream on the Graham and spread evenly.
Last some thinly sliced mangoes as close to each other as possible.
Place a layer of cream and spread.
Repeat step 4 until you run out of mango slices.
Top with crushed Grahams.
If you have extra slices but not enough to cover another layer you can put them on top of the Graham bed.
Place in the freezer to set.
This does not take long to set so you can enjoy this in an hour or two.
* In the first step, before mixing the cream with the condensed milk, I like to whip it for about 7 minutes to put some air in it so that once this dish is frozen it isn’t rock hard. This really doesn’t take long to make but I hesitated to indicate a time because it really depends on you. If you are the type who likes to work quickly and efficiently then it will be done in no time at all. But if you are the type to loo-lee-loo and take your time, it will take longer, but probably not by much more. What matters is that when you make this dish, don’t stress out. It really is super easy to make.
GCash (G-Xchange, Inc.) is the #1 Finance App in the Philippines. Through the GCash App, 69M registered users can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 1,600 partner billers nationwide; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 5.2M partner merchants and social sellers; and get access to savings, credit, loans, insurance and invest money, and so much more, all at the convenience of their smartphones. GCash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.), the first and only duacorn in the Philippines.
I was going through Goodnovel for something new to read when I stumbled upon Taming My Sexy Personal Assistant by HDallywrites. The title intrigued me … was this going to be a male or female POV? Who is the personal assistant? While it is common for the PA to be female, it isn’t always the case.
Get ready to greet the new year with a bang as GCash is giving buy load users a chance to win up to P300,000 in the last draw of its Lucky Load promo, which gives customers a chance to win a portion of a weekly pot prize by purchasing load and playing their earned tickets.
The Mango Float is a popular dessert during parties. I’ve heard it referred to as a Mango Graham cake because of its ingredients, I suppose. This dessert is easy to make and disappears quickly! I always make sure to make space in my tummy when I know it is on the menu.
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