MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has granted provisional certificates of registration to Standard Chartered Bank, United Overseas Bank Ltd Manila branch and two others as operators of payment systems.
The BSP’s Monetary Board also approved the provisional license of Global Payments Asia-Pacific Philippines Inc. and Paynamics Technologies Inc.
It has granted provisional certificates of registration to 22 operators of payments system over the past two months as the government continues to ramp up the country’s transformation to a cash-lite economy.
Last month, 10 companies including the BSP Payments and Settlements Office, Philippine Savings Bank, Asiapay Payment Technology Corp., Action.able Inc., Rural Bank of Balabag, Xenpay, Electronic Commerce Payments, Skybridge Payment, Paynet International Technology and Equicom Savings Bank were issued provisional certificates of registration.
The registration applications of Euronet Technology Services Inc., Primepay Inc., Philippine Clearing House Corp., Pay Myeg Philippines Inc., Molpay Philippines Inc. GPay Network PH Inc., Microbitz Solutions Inc., and AltPayNet Corp. were likewise approved.
The central bank issued the registration guidelines for operators of payments systems through circular 1049 last Sept.5.
The circular is a product of extensive consultations among private and public stakeholders in the payments industry, and is part of the phased-in implementation of Republic Act 11127 or the National Payment Systems Act approved by President Duterte that prioritizes the creation of a baseline inventory of all operators of payment systems.
The inventory will be used as inputs in the crafting of rules and criteria for designating payment systems.
Operators of payment systems include those that maintain platforms that enable payments or fund transfers, regardless of whether the source and destination accounts are maintained with the same or different institutions as well as those that operate the system or network that enables payments or fund transfers to be made through the use of a payment instrument.
Companies that provide a system that processes payments on behalf of any person or the government are required to register with the BSP.
In keeping with the thrust of the BSP to promote ease of doing business, the circular also provides a simplified registration process through self-assessment, streamlined list of documentary requirements, and descriptive examples-albeit not exhaustive-of activities that are akin to operating a payment system.
The BSP launched the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) in December 2015 in its bid to raise the share of cashless transactions to 20 percent by 2020 from only one percent.
However, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the share of electronic payments to total transactions is now likely to hit 30 percent by 2020 with the onboarding of government transactions through the launch of the government electronic-payment facility and the national QR code standard.