13 November 2023, Manila  – In partnership with One Cooperative Technology Service (OCTS), the first and only CDA-registered technology service cooperative in the Philippines, Pouch.ph has launched CoopPay, a mobile wallet app that provides cooperatives, their members, and families with a fast, cheap, and secure way to send and receive peso payments and bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network.

To mark National Cooperative Month last October, CoopPay successfully made an initial rollout to 100,000 members of the First Community Cooperative (FICCO), the largest community cooperative in the Philippines headquartered in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao, with a presence in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Luzon. Pouch.ph and One Coop Tech will extend the service to other cooperative groups nationwide. 

OCTS board chair Fr. Anton CT. Pascual expressed excitement about the nationwide rollout, “CoopPay is an idea whose time has come! But let us not forget why we are doing this; we are doing this to improve the economic lives of our members and their families.” Fr. Pascual founded Simbayanan ni Maria Multipurpose Cooperative, the biggest community cooperative in Taguig City. While serving as executive director of Caritas Manila, the Philippines’ largest church NGO, he is also chair of the country’s leading cooperative bank and insurance cooperative federation.

There are 30,606 registered cooperatives serving over 14 million members across diverse industries and sectors based on end-2021 CDA figures.

Pouch.ph is an Operator of Payments System (OPS) licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). One Cooperative Technology Service (OCTS) is a special type of cooperative supervised by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and organized under CDA MC 2021-14. As a special cooperative, its membership comes from all types and categories of cooperatives nationwide.

CoopPay offers a range of convenient features, including the ability to deposit and withdraw Philippine pesos, make CoopPay to CoopPay transfers, conduct bank/fund transfers (UnionBank, BPI, BDO, Metrobank, GCash, and Maya, among others), and utilize cash pick-up services.

Unlike other payment service apps, bill payments through CoopPay are generally more affordable as neither Pouch.ph nor the cooperative organizations add any service fees or markups. Bank transfers incur a minimal fee of P15, which aligns with industry standards. It has no set transfer limits and offers real human support.

The mobile wallet application also includes a shop tab, providing users with options to buy loads for all networks, pay for transportation services (Beep, Autosweep, Easytrip), and pay bills (Meralco, Maynilad, Converge, SkyCable, and many other billers).

“Our priority is to bring financial access, service, and opportunity to all Filipinos, particularly with a strong focus on customer care and global connectivity. Our collaboration with OCTS to launch CoopPay will enable us to bring better financial services to millions of Filipinos,” said Pouch.ph founder and CEO Ethan Rose. Mr. Rose, formerly a software engineer for Uber in Seattle and who also worked in the fields of AI and self-driving cars, has found a home in Cagayan de Oro City, is married to a Filipina.  

Speaking for One Coop Tech, COO Anna Marin Crisolo envisions CoopPay to provide a medium-term best-practice model for cooperatives in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. “It has always been our mission at OCTS to facilitate financial empowerment at the grassroots level. We want to show the way for our brother and sister cooperatives in the ASEAN region. After much work, and overcoming challenges, we are ready to do that. The CoopPay app, powered by Pouch.ph, is our next step in that direction,” Crisolo said. 

Following the strategic roadmap jointly drafted by Pouch.ph and OCTS, CoopPay is poised to be among the pioneering wallets in the Philippines and ASEAN to seamlessly integrate QR Ph, the national QR code standard, and the Lightning Network. This advanced integration will empower users to switch between peso and bitcoin payments via QR Ph effortlessly. Additionally, users will have the capability to send and receive bitcoin payments across different wallets that support the Lightning open protocol in Asia and around the world, providing a boon not only to cooperative members but also to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), seamen and other parts of the famous worldwide Filipino diaspora and their families back home.

CoopPay app is available for download on Google Play via https://tinyurl.com/CoopPay-PlayStore  and Apple Store via https://tinyurl.com/CoopPay-AppleStore. 

About CoopPay

Powered by Pouch.ph, CoopPay is a mobile wallet application developed in 2023 to provide cooperatives and their members with cost-effective, fast, and secure cross-border transactions. CoopPay enables convenient deposit and withdrawal of money and paying of bills through fiat or bitcoin.

Download CoopPay on Google Play via https://tinyurl.com/CoopPay-PlayStore or Apple Store via https://tinyurl.com/CoopPay-AppleStore 

About Pouch.ph

Founded in 2021, Pouch.ph built the first Lightning wallet for the Philippines so that Filipinos can have access to faster, cheaper, and more globally connected digital payments, founded on its ability to send and receive payments across borders via the bitcoin’s Lightning Network. 

Pouch.ph is partnered with global digital payments like Strike, CoinCorner, and NeutronPay to enable OFWs to send money to the Philippines instantly and with lower fees.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is a world-changing technology that boosts financial inclusion and the efficiency of cross-border payments. Pouch.ph is connecting the Philippine economy with the Lightning Network to ensure that Filipinos can seamlessly operate on this new and open payment protocol.