Powered by Finastra’s Essence, Tonik has implemented a cloud native and scalable core banking infrastructure engineered for speed, agility and scalable growth
In Southeast Asia’s rapidly evolving financial services market, agility is more than a buzzword – it is a business imperative. For Tonik Bank, the first digital-only bank in the Philippines, the goal was to launch a robust, secure and scalable digital bank that could both meet regulatory standards and drive market transformation. To realise this vision, Tonik turned to UK-based financial software firm Finastra’s Essence, an agile, cloud-native core banking platform designed to support rapid innovation and high-volume digital operations.
Engineering excellence
Working closely with Finastra and Microsoft, Tonik deployed Fusion Essence on Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure in Singapore, reducing latency and improving resilience. The architecture provided Tonik with the flexibility to build customised financial services for the Filipino market, ranging from buy now, pay later (BNPL) products and early settlement options to transparent disclosures on effective interest rates.
Crucially, Finastra’s microservices and API-first model allowed Tonik’s 30-strong in-house technology team to go live with a full-stack retail bank with minimal legacy constraints. The platform enabled new levels of performance, including reduced downtime, faster month-end processing and real-time data availability for analytics and machine learning.
Driving measurable impact
In 2024, Tonik continued to scale its service capabilities by expanding its partnership with Finastra through dedicated Agile Streams. As a result, the bank introduced AI-driven customer journeys, optimised in-app loan processing and expanded its product suite. Key outcomes included a 133% year-on-year rise in new loan production, a 94% increase in the loan portfolio and a 78% surge in lending income, pushing its annualised revenue run rate to $19m by mid-2024.
By integrating generative AI chatbot ChatGPT into its customer care workflows, Tonik also achieved 4.3x operational efficiency gains and expects to save $20m over three years. These innovations reflect not just a successful core banking initiative, but a blueprint for the next chapter of digital banking in the region.
Partnership recognition
Tonik Bank’s collaborative approach to building a cloud-first, customer-centric core – empowered by Finastra’s platform – has enabled it to move from startup to market leader in under three years. In recognition of this achievement, Tonik Bank and Finastra were named winners of the Best Core Banking System Initiative at the Retail Banker International Asia Trailblazer Awards 2025.