The Philippines’ central bank is proposing a one-year pause on new payment-system operators as it rethinks who should be regulated inside the payments chain.
The draft circular from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also targets layered merchant-acquiring arrangements, where intermediaries, pooled accounts and crypto-linked merchants can blur responsibility for compliance.
A One-Year Pause on New OPS Entries
The BSP said the period would support a “holistic review” of the OPS taxonomy, registration and licensing framework, related risk-management requirements and other regulatory considerations.
The review would address a market containing merchant aggregators, platforms, intermediaries, pooled settlement structures and arrangements with multiple merchant-facing layers.
If adopted, the 12-month suspension would start 15 calendar days after the final circular is published in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation.
The moratorium would not let unregistered firms start payment-system operations while approvals are on hold. Companies that need OPS registration would still require the permission from the Philippines' regulator.
Applications filed before the moratorium could still undergo technical review, but the BSP would hold back any final approval or denial until the suspension ends.
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Merchant-Acquiring Chains Face Tighter Controls
The draft also targets merchant-acquiring chains, especially where BSP-supervised firms process payments for virtual asset businesses through intermediaries. In those cases, institutions would need stronger due diligence, closer monitoring and transaction or settlement limits suited to the risks.
The Philippines' regulator is also trying to make responsibility harder to pass along the chain. The proposal covers merchant identification, KYC and KYB checks, AML controls, sanctions screening and fraud monitoring, including where payments move through intermediaries, pooled accounts or shared QR channels.
The scale of the registered market explains why the review matters. The BSP’s public register listed 314 registered OPS as of August 28, including operators marked as authorised to conduct merchant acquisition. But OPS registration is not the same as a banking, electronic-money or merchant-acquisition licence.
That distinction is central to the draft: the BSP is reviewing who can perform payment functions, who needs additional approval and who remains accountable when several firms are positioned between the merchant and the payment flow.
As the circular remains a draft, its final scope, wording and any exceptions may still change before issuance.
