PalawanPay nears 23 million subscriber target

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December 9, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The digital arm of pawnshop giant Palawan Group of Companies is shifting its strategy to boost higher usage of its PalawanPay application, placing less emphasis on expanding subscriber numbers and more on enhancing overall user engagement.

Noting that 26 percent of the entire group’s transactions already pass through the application, Palawan Group president and CEO Karlo Castro said the company’s digital arm continues to post triple-digit growth, although launched just recently and now entering a period of rapid expansion.

“The target actually by the end of the year is 23 million. We are very close to that one. We are probably going to hit it,” he said. “The push for last year was really increasing the number of subscribers. The push for this year and the next is really the usage.”

Castro said the company is intentionally concentrating this year on encouraging its 22 million registered users to utilize PalawanPay across a wider range of everyday use cases, prioritizing stronger platform usage rather than pursuing additional expansion of its user base.

He added that the digital application is serving as the central payment platform for the entire Palawan Group as it processes transactions across its various businesses, including pawning payments, interest fees and insurance premiums.

Castro added that money transfers, whether over the counter or digital, are increasingly routed through the application, which generates a positive contribution and revenue for the group as a whole.

“It’s servicing all the rest of the business of the Palawan Group. So for example, for pawning, a lot of the payment of interest and other things are coursed through PalawanPay,” he said.

“There are a number of things that we’re launching this December, January and February up to March probably. That we believe will really push for financial inclusion,” Castro added.

The Palawan Group recently officially launched its Pera Padala Abroad feature in its digital application, allowing users to transfer a minimum amount of P300 through multi-channel transfers to foreign banks, electronic wallets or cash pick-up abroad.

Looking ahead, Castro said the group plans to introduce new PalawanPay features, including investment and savings options, which will expand beyond transfers and general money movement.