EP 409 – Is AI Closing the Gap on Credit Access? – Weili Dong, Lito Villanueva, and Ramesh Jairam

by Michael Waitze | Jan 14, 2026

Asia’s economic landscape is shifting in ways that no longer follow a clean, upward trajectory. Growth, opportunity, and digital adoption are accelerating for some, yet financial vulnerability is deepening for others.

This episode of ATP with with ⁠Lito Villanueva⁠ (⁠RCBC⁠), ⁠Weili Dong⁠ (⁠PayJoy⁠), and ⁠Ramesh Jairam⁠ (⁠OneConnect Financial Technology⁠) brought clarity to what a K-shaped recovery looks like on the ground—and what it will take to build a path toward a more inclusive future.

Some of the topics that Lito, Weili, and Ramesh discussed in detail included:

Financial vulnerability is increasing even as digital connectivity deepens. This massive increase in connectivity has not been matched with improvements in wages or formal credit access.
There are large economic differences between large urban centers and geographically isolated rural areas.
Last-mile financial infrastructure can fundamentally transform previously under or unserved communities.
Credit access is becoming the defining gap in k-shaped economies. The real economic divide is those with credit access and those without.
Smartphones are no longer simply for communication and sharing. Smartphones are now the strategic engines of financial infrastructure.
Alternative data is continuing to rewrite the rules and frameworks of credit analysis and underwriting.

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