Fuse Financing Inc., the lending arm of the Philippines’ leading finance super app GCash, cited the crucial role of innovative financing structures at the 5th Asia Finance Forum, hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila.
The discussion focused on how these structures, such as co-lending, can help fintech companies overcome capital constraints and accelerate credit extension to the nation’s underbanked and unbanked populations.
Traditional debt markets often restrict the capital available to fintechs, limiting their ability to scale and slowing progress toward greater economic inclusion.
The panel, “Financing Growth: Unlocking Co-Lending, Capital Markets & Risk-Sharing for Fintechs,” centered on how off-book funding partnerships create a beneficial synergy between fintechs and banks.
Gabby Lacuesta, chief financial officer of Fuse, joined the session, which was moderated by ADB senior investment specialist Apurva Kumar.
Also featured were Irem Sayeed, chief risk officer at UGRO Capital; Fernanda Lima, partner at LeapFrog; and Luke Boland, head of Fintech Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.
Through the co-lending model, banks gain a new channel to deploy capital to underserved customers, while fintechs like Fuse can cycle capital more quickly and expand their market reach.
Fuse utilizes the GCash ecosystem, which serves eight out of ten Filipinos, to connect partner institutions with communities often excluded from traditional lending.
Lacuesta said building confidence across the entire lending process is vital for successful partnerships. “For GCash, the essential unlock was demonstrating to our partners that the end-to-end system—from acquisition and underwriting to collections and recoveries—is consistently effective, reliable, and working really well,” he said.
The panelists also discussed the dynamic balance between on- and off-balance sheet lending, which shifts with market conditions and investor appetite, ensuring lending remains both sustainable and responsive to economic realities.
Beyond credit, the conversation cited the importance of managing operational and strategic risks, especially as fintech platforms handle sensitive data on a massive scale.
Given the wide reach of the GCash platform across most of the country’s population, protecting customer information is a central priority and a key operational risk in digital lending. Effective risk management is crucial to maintaining viable, efficient, and trusted co-lending models.
