Krasnov explained: “It was started with a vision of solving financial inclusion in the Philippines and especially credit inclusion, where 90% of the Filipinos have never had a loan from the formal financial institution. And this is really what we’re here to solve.” This drove Tonik to focus on accumulating deposits as a foundation for its lending operations, a sector historically underserved in the Philippines.The bank’s launch in April 2021, despite being in the thick of the pandemic, saw an impressive accumulation of deposits, exceeding $130 million within the first 10 months. Krasnov said: “Once we saw that the deposits were coming in much faster than we expected, we started building out a broad range of asset products.”

Today, Tonik offers a diverse array of credit products tailored to the Filipinos, including cash loans, sales finance loans for electronics and furniture, secure loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, and home equity. Additionally, the acquisition of fintech TendoPay added payroll loans to the bank’s portfolio, further diversifying its offerings.Reflecting on its growth, Krasnov said: “It took us about 18 months to calibrate our risk models and stability models in the unit level, to the point where we’re actually making money on each goal.” This milestone was a significant achievement, allowing the bank to scale up its loan portfolio more aggressively.Tonik has not only strengthened its position in the digital banking sector but has also made strides its core mission of enhancing financial accessibility for Filipinos.