Overview
- The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas published an exposure draft on Monday proposing a 12‑month suspension of new Operator of Payment Systems (OPS) registrations and is now soliciting written feedback.
- The draft would take effect 15 days after final publication if approved and would stop approvals or denials for pending applications while requiring prior BSP authorization for any OPS activity during the pause.
- The proposal imposes stricter rules for virtual asset service providers by forcing direct merchant relationships, stronger AML/KYC checks, closer transaction monitoring, and risk‑based transaction or settlement limits.
- BSP‑supervised institutions must identify layered merchant‑acquiring chains and complete a six‑month review plus six months of remediation where needed, and the regulator also proposes a National QR Code Merchant Database to improve merchant traceability.
- The freeze would not order existing registered operators to stop and would affect about 314 listed OPS as of August 28, with likely effects including slower entry for new payment firms, higher compliance costs, and changes to how international crypto firms access Philippine payment channels while the draft is revised.