Squidpay gets e-wallet license revoked by BSP
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) [link] resolved to revoke, with finality, the e-wallet license and electronic money issuer license of Squidpay Technology Inc. (SQPAY). T
he BSP did not provide any reason or justification for the revocation, only that the revocation itself is based on the rules for non-bank financial institutions.
SQPAY is owned by Marvin Dela Cruz, the personality at the center of the Premiere Horizon Alliance [PHA 0.4 unch] fiasco, which is one of the clumsiest and messiest backdoor takeover attempts in PSE history.
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Back in 2020, Mr. Dela Cruz put a downpayment on a majority stake in PHA using money he borrowed from a member of his investment group, with the promise to make full payment for the remainder of the PHA majority stake with either cash or shares in SQPAY. Nearly two years later, with that payment coming due, Mr. Dela Cruz gets himself in legal trouble with his investment group member that he borrowed the downpayment money from, for failure to repay the debt.
Then PHA refuses to accept SQPAY shares as payment for the remaining majority stake in PHA, citing the “unviable” nature of the SQPAY platform. Then PHA files criminal estafa charges against Mr. Dela Cruz and a former PHA board member, and the prosecutor overseeing the case finds probable cause to indict. Now, the BSP affirms its original decision to revoke SQPAY’s licenses.
There are no “good guys” here; PHA and its leadership obviously failed to do sufficient due diligence on this feral investment group, Marvin Dela Cruz tried his best to buy real things with debt and magic beans, and we’re all marginally dumber for having watched this all happen in slow motion over the course of the past two years. And it’s still not even resolved!
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