What is EMI? List of Electronic Money Issuers (EMIs) | Companies with EMI license in the Philippines

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List is updated on September 20, 2022.

It has become increasingly common for us Filipinos to pay bills, buy mobile load, and pay credit card dues via mobile apps. The proliferation of mobile wallet apps made paying online easy, even if we do not have a bank account.

In today’s article, we will discuss electronic money (e-money) as defined by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

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A mobile wallet app is an application that allows a user to store money on it. While it is almost no different from a savings account in the simplest sense, the mobile wallet allows you to use the money you put there to do a variety of things with that “electronic money”.

What is e-Money?

Electronic money is money whose monetary value is digitally stored in an electronic account. It can be accessed remotely via a device like mobile phones or prepaid cards.

Features of e-money:

1. The stored value can be transferred to other wallets or even deposit* accounts.
2. It can be converted to and from physical cash via authorized agents like accredited retail stores. (Example: You can add money to your Coins.ph through 7-eleven.)
3. It can be accepted as payment for goods or services by participating merchants.

What electronic money is not:

The electronic money in an e-money account (like the Pesos inside your Coins.ph) is not classified as a “deposit” because that is not a “deposit account”. Therefore, that money cannot earn interest and is not covered by deposit insurance. This is the e-wallet app’s main diference from a deposit account at a bank.

What is Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) License?

This license allows an operator of an application (like a mobile app), to convert cash in fiat to electronic peso. For example, if you cash in Php 1,000 to Coins.ph,  you will see an “electronic” version of that Php 1,000 on the Coins.ph app. Furthermore, you can use that e-money to pay for bills, buy load, buy beep card load, etc within the Coins.ph app. That is possible because Coins.ph has an EMI License.

Now there are instances when an app doesn’t have an EMI license but can still do the things mentioned above. But from reports on local papers, it seems (this is just the writer’s inference) it’s only when the EMI licenses of such apps are pending. For example, the Coins.ph app allows online payments already before they received the EMI license. Grab has a functioning “Grab Wallet” before they received their license. Bottomline both apps now have the EMI license so it is possible that they offered e-money features on their app because their applications are pending.

• Read More: 16+ Places/Websites to Buy Cryptocurrency in the Philippines

The E-Money Ecosystem:

As of August 27, 2019, there are 30 banks and 14 non-banks with EMI licenses. The BSP’s Financial Inclusion Dashboard shows 33 million e-money accounts as of December 2018. This number can be divided into the following:

• 5 million active e-money wallet accounts
• 28 million prepaid cards linked to e-money accounts.

This number is definitely bigger than credit card adoption which, although increasing, stands at 9.4 million as of December 2018.

List of E-Money Issuers in the Philippines:

These are the companies with EMI license in the Philippines. Data as of September 30, 2020:

EMI Banks

1. Asia United Bank Corporation
2. AllBank
3. Bank of Commerce
4. BDO Unibank Inc.
5. Bank of the Philippine Islands
6. Binangonan Rural Bank
7. Cantilan Bank
8. Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank, Inc.
9. China Banking Corporation
10. CTBC Bank (Philippines) Corporation
11. Development Bank of  the Philippines
12. Dungganon Bank (A Microfinance Rural Bank), Inc.
13. East West Banking Corporation
14. Equicom Savings Bank, Inc.
15. First Consolidated Bank, Inc (A Private Development Bank)
16. Land Bank of the Philippines
17. Maybank Philippines, Incorporated
18. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company
19. Pacific Ace Savings Bank, Inc.
20. Philippine Bank of Communications
21. Philippine National Bank
22. Philippine Savings Bank
23. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation
24. Robinsons Bank Corp
25. Rural Bank of Guinobatan
26. Security Bank Corporation
27. Sterling Bank of Asia, Inc (A Savings Bank)
28. United Coconut Planters Bank
29. UnionBank of the Philippines

EMI-NBFI (Non-Bank Financial Institutions)

1. Alipay Philippines, Inc
2. AllEasy Incorporated
3. Banana FIntech Services Corporation
4. Cebuana Lhuillier Services Corporation
5. CIS Bayad Center
6. DCPay Philippines, Inc (Coins.ph)
7. Easypay Global EMI Corp
8. Ecashpay Asia, Inc.
9. eMandarin Ventures
10. Gpay Network PH, Inc (GrabPay)
11. G-Xchange, Inc (Gcash)
12. Inception Technology Philippines Corporation
13. Infoserve, Inc.
14. I-Pay Commerce Ventures Incorporated
15. i-Remit, Inc.
16. Lulu-Phils. Int’l Exchange Inc. (Lulu Money)
17. MarcoPay Inc.
18. OmniPay, Inc.
19. Paymaya Philippines, Inc.
20. Paymongo Payments
21. Paynamics Technologies, Inc.
22. PAYSO Inc
23. Philibit Money Changer and Remittance Services
24. PDAX
25. PPS-PEPP Financial Services Corporation
26. Razer Pay Digital
27. ShopeePay Philippines
28. SpeedyPay, Inc.
29. SquidPay Technology
30. Starpay Corporation
31. TagCash Ltd. Inc.
32. TayoCash Incorporated
33. Togetech, Inc.
34. Toktokwallet Inc.
35. TopJuan Tech Corporation
36. Traxion Pay
37. TrueMoney Philippines Inc.
38. U-PAY Digital Technologies, Inc.
39. USSC Money Servinces, Inc.
40. WIBS PHP Inc.
41. Wirecard e-Money Philippines, Inc
42. Zybi Tech, Inc. (JuanCash, JuanExchange)

This article is published on BitPinas: What is EMI? List of Electronic Money Issuers (EMIs) | Companies with EMI license in the Philippines

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