The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) (the Philippine Central Bank) has issued two new circulars that will be of interest to companies engaged in remittance services, e-money, digital currency, and other fintech businesses. Both circulars amend portions of the BSP Manual of Regulations for Non-Bank Financial Institutions.

BSP Circular No. 942 (issued on January 20, 2017) applies to operations and reporting obligations of non-bank entities engaged in remittance, money changing or foreign exchange dealing. In particular, the circular applies to remittance and transfer companies (RTC), remittance sub-agents, and money changers/forex dealers (MC/FXD). RTCs include e-money issuers and remittance platform providers (RPP). An RPP is an entity that provides a shared or common platform/IT infrastructure and maintains settlement accounts in order to provide funds for remittance transactions within its network.

BSP Circular No. 944 (issued on February 6, 2017) governs the operations and reporting obligations of virtual currency (VC) exchanges in the Philippines offering services or engaging in activities that provide facility for the conversion or exchanges of fiat currency to VC or vice versa.

Download a copy of the SyCipLaw TMT Bulletin on the Philippine Central Bank’s Issuance of New FinTech Rules.

This alert was authored by SyCipLaw partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez.