Billease, one of the Philippines’ leading consumer finance platforms, announced today that it has secured a ₱1-billion credit facility from 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, the first-ever facility with PNB marks a significant milestone and reflects growing confidence among the country’s largest banks in lending against high-quality consumer finance receivables. As the company continues to scale, Billease is deliberately expanding its local funding base to improve both the economics and efficiency of its growth. AlphaPrimus Advisors served as transaction advisor for the debt facility.
An Innovative, Conservatively Over-Collateralized Structure
The Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR) is the centralized registry for movable assets established under the Philippines’ Personal Property Security Act (Republic Act No. 11057). It allows PNB to hold a secured interest over Billease’s high-quality consumer loan receivables and provides a framework for Philippine banks to lend against fintech receivables with greater confidence.
The structure is designed to protect PNB throughout the life of the facility through three key mechanisms.
First, Billease pledges more customer loans than the amount it borrows, ensuring that the value of the collateral remains higher than the outstanding facility.
Second, the collateral pool is regularly refreshed. Loans that have been fully repaid or have fallen behind are replaced with new loans.
Third, when Billease customers make repayments on loans pledged to the PNB facility, the cash follows a predetermined priority of payments, with the PNB facility receiving payment first.
The facility also provides PNB with an efficient and secure way to build exposure to retail consumer credit, one of the fastest-growing segments of the lending market. Because Billease’s loan portfolio is highly granular, the company has a structural cost advantage over traditional banks, making these loans economically viable. The facility provides exposure to the segment while spreading risk across a large number of small borrowers with short repayment terms, complemented by the monthly refresh of the loan pool.
“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 of Philippine National Bank.
Risk Contained, with Significant Funding Headroom
The new PNB relationship comes as Billease continues to expand from a position of strength.
Based on its FY 2025 audited financial statements, Billease increased revenue by more than 80% to ₱8.7 billion and posted ₱782 million in net profit, marking its third consecutive year of profitability. This represents a notable milestone in the global buy-now-pay-later sector, where many industry peers remain unprofitable.
The company’s 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 rapid growth and a challenging macroeconomic environment, Billease reports that its risk metrics remain within the expected range.
As of December 31, 2025, on a consolidated basis, Billease held approximately ₱6.4 billion in total equity against ₱7.1 billion in total borrowings, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of approximately 1x. This provides significant headroom for additional debt facilities, including the new PNB facility.
Built on Strong Customer Trust
Billease’s funding partners are lending against a business that has also established strong trust among its customers.
A recent independent behavioral study conducted in partnership with Ateneo de Manila University found that Billease has developed strong organic trust in an industry where consumer confidence can be difficult to earn.
Across 30 in-depth customer interviews, a large majority of participants reported highly positive experiences with the brand. The finding is notable in a segment that includes numerous opportunistic lenders.
Researchers attributed this “quiet trust” to consistently positive customer experiences across the Billease journey, including the company’s app, customer service, and collections practices.
Billease’s focus on quality helps provide a smooth customer experience throughout the customer life cycle, resulting in strong word-of-mouth recommendations from actual users—an important asset in the consumer finance industry.
For Billease, this reputation is critical in serving both sides of its business: its customers, who rely on responsible access to credit, and its lenders, including banks, that provide the funding needed to support continued growth.
“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 increasingly funding its growth through local partners, complementing its existing roster of local and international lenders.
The partnership also aligns with Billease’s expansion into banking following its acquisition of a rural bank, a move expected to broaden the products and services the company can offer customers, including savings and deposits, while further strengthening its funding profile and improving its cost of capital.
“The strongest funding relationships are built on transparency and track record, not promises,” said Garret Go, CFO of Billease.
