The Philippines’ central bank, known as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP, has just granted two financial institutions permission to continue with full operations as digital banks.
This after the BSP recently issued them Certificates of Authority (COA) to Operate.
This makes the total of digital banks that have been granted permission to do business in the Philippines to six.
Two more added to Philippines digital banks
The most recent financial institutions to get their certifications were UnionDigital Bank, Inc. (UDB) and GoTyme Bank Corporation (GTYME), who did so on July 12 and 29, respectively.
Tonik Digital Bank, Inc. (TONDB) and Maya Bank, Inc. (MAYA) were granted permission to function as digital banks by the BSP during the first quarter of 2022.
The second quarter of 2022 saw the approval of Overseas Filipino Bank, Inc., A Digital Bank of LANDBANK (OFBDB), and UNObank, Inc. (UBI).
Digital banks that have largely met with the BSP’s criteria for approval and pre-operational procedures are granted the COA to Operate by the BSP. These elements include, among others, capitalization, risk and governance framework, and information technology systems.
BSP criteria for approval
The procedure for obtaining a COA to Operate starts with the submission of a request to form a digital bank, which must be authorized by the Monetary Board (MB). After approval by the MB, the BSP gives a Certificate of Authorization to Register, which must be presented to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Digital banks can obtain the COA to Operate from the BSP once they have registered and fulfilled all other requirements.
While UBI, UDB, and GTYME have started restricted operations aimed at a small number of consumers, OFBDB, TONDB, and MAYA are already fully active.
The cautious strategy used by digital banks to further ensure that all facets of their digital operations are worked out before fully providing their services to the general public is to operate initially with restricted capacity.
The public launches of UBI, UDB, and GTYME are anticipated to occur in the second part of this year.