MANILA, Philippines – Billease, one of the leading consumer finance platforms in the Philippines, announced that it has signed a ₱1-billion credit facility with Philippine National Bank (PNB), one of the country’s largest universal banks. The facility utilizes the Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR), giving PNB a registered first-rank claim over a pool of Billease’s consumer loan receivables.
For Billease, this first facility with PNB is a key milestone. It reflects the growing confidence among the country’s largest banks in lending against high-quality consumer finance receivables. As Billease grows, there is a conscious effort to expand its local funding base for both its economics and efficiency. AlphaPrimus Advisors acted as a transaction advisor for this debt facility.
An innovative, conservatively over-collateralized structure
The Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR) is the centralized movable-asset registry created under the Philippines’ Personal Property Security Act (Republic Act 11057). The Registry allows PNB to hold a secured interest over Billease’s high-quality consumer loan receivables. It offers a template for how Philippine banks can lend against fintech receivables with confidence.
The structure is designed to protect PNB for the life of the facility, and it works in three ways. First, Billease pledges more in customer loans than it borrows, ensuring that the collateral is always worth more than the amount outstanding. Second, the pool is refreshed regularly. Loans that have been repaid or fallen behind are replaced with new loans. And third, when Billease customers make repayments to loans tied against the PNB facility, the cash follows a set order of priority, with the PNB facility being paid first.
The facility also gives PNB an efficient and safe way to build exposure to retail consumer credit, one of the fastest-growing parts of the lending market. Given the granularity of these loans, Billease has a structural cost advantage versus traditional banks, allowing these loans to be economically feasible. This facility enables exposure in the segment, with risk being spread across many small borrowers repaying over short terms, in addition to the pool being refreshed every month.
“Billease has demonstrated strong portfolio quality across different market cycles. This track record gave us confidence to establish this relationship at a meaningful scale. We see this as the beginning of a broader partnership and look forward to exploring additional opportunities to work together,” said Executive Vice President and Head of Institutional Banking Sector Roberto Fo. Abastillas, Philippine National Bank.
Risk contained, with significant funding headroom
The new PNB relationship comes as Billease continues to grow from a position of strength. Based on its FY 2025 audited financial statement, the company grew revenue by more than 80% to ₱8.7 billion and delivered net profit of ₱782 million, marking its third consecutive year of profitability, a rare milestone in the global buy-now-pay-later sector, where many peers remain unprofitable. The gross loan book grew by more than 77% to approximately ₱12.5 billion, while total assets reached ₱13.7 billion. The platform now onboards more than 200,000 new customers and disburses more than ₱5 billion every month. Despite this growth and the challenging macroeconomic environment, Billease reports risk metrics within the expected range.
As of December 31, 2025, on a consolidated basis, Billease held approximately ₱6.4 billion in total equity against total borrowings of ₱7.1 billion, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of roughly 1x and providing significant headroom for additional debt facilities such as the one from PNB.
Built on strong customer trust
Billease’s funding partners are lending against a franchise that has earned strong trust from its customers. A recent independent behavioral study conducted with Ateneo de Manila University found that Billease has garnered strong organic trust in an industry where trust is hard-earned. Across 30 in-depth customer interviews, a large majority of participants reported very positive experience with the brand, a notable finding in a segment filled with opportunistic lenders. The researchers attributed this “quiet trust” to consistently positive customer experience, from the Billease app and customer service to collections practices. Billease’s commitment to quality ensures a smooth customer journey throughout the customer life cycle, resulting in strong word-of-mouth recommendations from actual users, an invaluable asset in the consumer finance industry.
For Billease, that reputation is critical in serving both its customers (consumers) and its lenders (banks).
“We are deliberately expanding our local funding base here at home, with the country’s leading banks, because that allows us to keep serving more Filipinos with affordable, responsible credit. PNB coming on board is a strong signal, it says the largest institutions in the market are ready to fund this kind of lending when it is done with discipline. We have built a profitable business that scales without compromising on underwriting standards, and relationships like this let us fund that growth locally, on improving terms,” said Georg Steiger, co-founder and CEO of Billease.
The PNB facility advances Billease’s strategy of funding its growth increasingly through local partners, complementing a roster of local and international lenders. It also aligns with the company’s entry into banking, following its acquisition of a rural bank, which is expected to broaden the products Billease can offer customers, including savings and deposits while further improving its funding profile and cost of capital.
“The strongest funding relationships are built on transparency and track record, not promises,” said Garret Go, CFO of Billease.
