BSP Authorizes 3 New e-Money Issuers

With an increasing number of users who access financial services online, the BSP is speeding up the evaluation of companies that applied as e-Money issuers.

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With an increasing number of users who access financial services online, the BSP is speeding up the evaluation of companies that applied as e-Money issuers.

3 Newly Accredited eMoney Issuers

BSP Regulator Mr. Melchor Plabasan shared to The STAR that they recently approved the licenses of the following e-money issuers:
  • Coins.ph
  • Wisecard e-money Philippines
  • Starpay Corp.
While the 3 licenses are good news, the BSP is not stopping there as it plans to completely evaluate all pending applications.

“We recently issued e-money licenses to some fintech players and we are completing evaluation of other EMI applications” – Mr. Melchor Plabasan, BSP Regulator

Electronic Money Issuers

Currently, there are 30 EMI-banks and 10 EMI-others or nonbank EMIs operating in the country as of December 2017. eMoney transactions are also on the rise as it grew by 11.2% (Php 268 million) by September 2017. Currently, popular platforms with eMoney licenses include GCash and Paymaya.

Why the speed up in approvals? Mr. Plabasan stated that technology has become a major core of financial services. This is because of the growing number of clients who prefer to access products and services in the comfort of their own homes or by using electronic gadgets.

Virtual Currency Exchanges

It is important to note that an e-money license is not equivalent to a virtual currency exchange license, which Coins.ph and SCI Venture’s Rebittance Inc have. BSP already sent an official advisory to the public in handling virtual currencies (VC) or cryptocurrencies, as we call them here in Bitpinas.

“Unlike stocks or debt issues, VCs are not back by any company or commodity and the price is purely dependent on market demand and supply. As such, investing in virtual currency present a highly speculative and risky undertaking which might result into huge financial losses,” – BSP

Source: The Philippine STAR

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