Thunes, which claims to be the “Smart Superhighway” to move money around the world, announced a new collaboration with GCash, the digital wallet in the Philippines.
This initiative enables GCash users to top up their wallet balances directly within the app using funds from their U.K. and European bank accounts.
This collabo makes cross-border top-ups real-time and more cost efficient, offering GCash users in Europe more financial control.
About 2 million Filipino expatriates reportedly “work in Europe and maintain ties to the Philippines.”
Those who own a GCash digital wallet can now better support their relatives back home by topping up their wallet “instantly, and by ensuring that the money is used as intended, whether for education, healthcare, or household expenses.”
This initiative highlights the importance that Thunes and GCash place on financial inclusion and community empowerment by “helping people improve financial oversight and spending management.”
As a Member of Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network, leveraging its SmartX Treasury System and Fortress Compliance Platform, GCash enjoys speed, “control, visibility, protection, and cost efficiencies for their customers’ cross-border account top-ups within their GCash account.”
Many Filipinos have strong family ties and “business relationships back in the Philippines.”
Filipinos utilize GCash to “pay bills, goods and services, friends and family, and obtain financing.”
The wallet facilitates “purpose-driven” payments to “pay medical bills, housing costs and education.”
GCash has helped enable unbanked and underbanked Filipinos “take part in the internet and gig economy, spurring financial inclusion.”
According to the World Bank, the Philippines has the “fourth largest” market for inbound remittances.
In 2024, Europe sent $3.8 billion to the Philippines.
Thunes’ Direct Global Network allows Members to make payments in real-time in “over 130 countries and more than 80 currencies.”
Thunes’ Network connects directly to “over 7 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts worldwide, as well as 15 billion cards via more than 320 different payment methods, such as GCash, M-Pesa, Airtel, MTN, Orange, JazzCash, Easypaisa, AliPay, WeChat Pay.”
Thunes’ Direct Global Network differentiates itself via its worldwide reach, in-house SmartX Treasury System and Fortress Compliance Platform, ensuring Members of the Network receive “speed, control, visibility, protection, and cost efficiencies when making real-time payments, globally.”
Members of Thunes’ Direct Global Network include gig economy firms such as the following: Uber and Deliveroo, super-apps like Grab and WeChat, MTOs, fintechs, PSPs and banks.
Headquartered in Singapore, Thunes has offices in 15 locations.
GCash is the Philippines’ Finance Super App and Cashless Ecosystem.
Via the GCash App, users can purchase “prepaid airtime; pay bills via partner billers nationwide; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 6 million partner merchants and social sellers; and get access to savings, credit, loans, insurance and invest money.”
Its mobile wallet operations are handled “by G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt, the $5 billion unicorn in the Philippines.”
GCash is a supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly “UN SDGs 5,8,10, and 13, which focus on safety & security, financial inclusion, diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, respectively.”
