Voyager Innovations, the digital arm of the PLDT Group, has confirmed that the top executive of its financial technology unit, aptly named FINTQ, has resigned from his post.
In a statement sent to Newsbytes.PH, Voyager said that Angelito “Lito” Villanueva has tendered his resignation as managing director of FINTQ effective March 31, 2019.
“Under his tenure, FINTQ launched digital lending and other innovations in financial services, becoming a partner of choice for various financial institutions. He has played a key role in promoting Voyager’s financial inclusion and ecosystem building initiatives. The company thanks him for his contributions and wishes him the best in his future endeavors,” the company said.
As FINTQ head, Villanueva served as the founder and lead convenor of “KasamaKa”, a community and income-building initiative that sought to increase financing access through a digital referral system. He also led the roll-out of the digital lending platform called Lendr, which disbursed over P46 billion.
He also worked closely with the late Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Nestor Espenilla on a number of fintech-related initiatives. Despite his resignation from Voyager, he still serves as chairman of the FinTech Alliance of the Philippines.
In the same statement, Voyager said it has appointed Mario “Mar” Lazaro to oversee FINTQ’s enterprise business, in addition to his current role as director and head for PayMaya Business.
In a phone interview, Villanueva said he had planned to leave as FINTQ boss last year but it is only now that he was able to formally file his resignation papers. He was formerly with International Finance Corporation and Visa before being employed at Voyager, which is headed by Smart founder Orlando “Doy” Vea.
Voyager is said to be undertaking realignments in its business structure after taking in funds in October last year from global investment firms KKR and Tencent Holdings.