Philippine bank Union Bank said it is working with US-based blockchain software technology company ConsenSys to integrate Ethereum and blockchain-based platforms of financial institutions. ConsenSys was founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. The Philippines has a unique financial infrastructure and only the upper class and high net-worth individuals can afford banking services. The vast majority of individuals and even businesses rely on local remittance networks and outlets to send and receive payments both domestically and internationally. The main reason behind the difficulty of acquiring bank accounts and services in the Philippines is the base balance required by financial institutions. Union Bank, for instance, requires users to have more than $2000 as default balance, and the failure to maintain a balance of over $2000 could result in penalties. ConsenSys and Union Bank believe that the blockchain could be the technology that might be able to drastically improve the current financial infrastructure and ecosystem of the Philippines.
