BSP is set to increase the required minimum capital for electronic money issuers.
BSP — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is set to increase the required minimum capital for an electronic money issuer (EMI) with transactions of PHP 25 billion or more from PHP 100 million to PHP 200 million.
Also, the required capital will depend on the e-money issuer’s size, regardless if owned by a bank or a non-bank financial institution.
According to the central bank, thee-money issuers’ required capital will “be the higher of the required minimum capitalization” for non-banks and banks depending on bank category or “required minimum capitalization based on EMI category” set in the proposed circular.
Based on the draft circular, there’s no difference in the required capital for EMI-Bank and EMI non-bank financial institutions (EMI-NBFI) but the central bank will categorize w-money issuers as “large scale” and “small scale”.
The central bank said that it will classify EMI as “large scale” if the 12-month average value of aggregated outflow and inflow transactions is equal to or greater than PHP 25 billion.
For “large scale” EMIs, the minimum required capital for both bank-owned and those owned by non-bank financial institutions is PHP 200 million. On the other hand, the minimum required capital for the “small scale” EMIs is PHP 100 million.
The central bank also said that the proposed revisions to EMI rules “aims to promote a safe, efficient, and inclusive digital finance ecosystem” by espousing an enabling regulatory environment that fosters an effective and responsive management of attendant risks and recognizes the advances in digital technologies.
“This enables banks to provide financial services attuned to the evolving needs and behavior of consumers and supported by safeguards and controls against various existing and emerging risks such as money laundering, terrorism and proliferation financing, cybersecurity, and fraud, among others,” the central bank said.
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The central bank is currently circulating to all its supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) the draft circular amending regulations governing electronic money issuers in the country for comments and suggestions. The feedback deadline is March 18.
Since December 16, 2021, the BSP has closed the EMI application window and it will stay close for 2 years. The said ban was imposed for both non-banks and banks.
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