The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has circulated a draft circular that would suspend the acceptance and processing of new Operator of Payment System (OPS) applications for 12 months and require virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to be onboarded only through a direct merchant arrangement, subject to enhanced due diligence, monitoring, and transaction limits.
An OPS is any entity that runs an arrangement enabling payments or fund transfers, while a VASP is a firm engaged in crypto exchange, transfer, or custody activities.
The draft, titled “Regulations to Strengthen Integrity Controls in Payment Transactions,” would amend the Manual of Regulations for Payment Systems. It is signed by Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr., though the approval date and Monetary Board resolution number remain blank. The Philippine Star reported the proposal on September 7, 2026.
The Proposed Pause and Its Stated Purpose
During the 12-month window, the BSP would neither approve nor deny pending OPS applications. Applications received before the proposed suspension would continue to be evaluated, but no decision would be issued until the pause ends. New activities requiring OPS registration would be barred unless separately authorized. The stated purpose is a “holistic review” of the classification and licensing framework for payment operators.
The pause layers on top of an existing brake on the crypto side. Under Memorandum No. M-2025-031, the central bank extended its moratorium on new VASP licenses from September 1, 2025, subject to reassessment, leaving in place the current roster of authorized crypto firms, which includes Coins.ph operator Betur Inc., Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX), Maya Philippines, Moneybees Forex Corp., and UnionBank of the Philippines.
Crypto Firms Classified as High-Risk Merchants
The proposed Section 1003 places licensed VASPs in the same high-risk category as casinos, online gambling operators, lawful adult-oriented businesses, and money service businesses. Firms in that bucket can only be signed up through a direct merchant arrangement, meaning the acquirer holds the relationship itself, with no payment facilitator or aggregator sitting in the middle to accept, collect, or settle funds on the merchant’s behalf.
The draft also bans any structure that hides the ultimate merchant or beneficiary, fragments accountability, or blocks the reconstruction of a transaction, language the draft links to arrangements associated with fraud, scams and sanctions evasion.
A new National QR Code Merchant Database would sit alongside those rules, holding merchant identifiers, licensing status, beneficial owners, settlement accounts and sanctions-screening flags for every merchant accepting payments via QR Ph, the country’s interoperable QR code standard. If finalized, the circular would take effect fifteen days after publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation.
Related Regulatory Context
The proposal comes nine months after the National Telecommunications Commission ordered internet service providers to restrict about 50 unauthorized online exchanges, a sweep The Crypto Times covered in its report on the Philippines’ Coinbase and Gemini blocks. It also arrives while Binance is testing a supervised re-entry through local partner BlockShoals Technologies under the SEC’s Strategic Sandbox, an arrangement The Crypto Times detailed when the sandbox authorization was granted in July.
Notably, the BSP is not touching either lane. The draft does not ban crypto trading, does not revoke any existing VASP or OPS certificate, and does not name individual firms.
A Regional Pattern
The Philippines is moving in step with its neighbors. Singapore’s Monetary Authority tightened its Digital Token Service Provider regime on June 30, 2025, telling firms serving only offshore users that they would need a license the regulator said it would rarely grant.
Indonesia shifted crypto oversight from commodity regulator Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in January 2025, while Bank Indonesia keeps a hard line on crypto as a means of payment. Thailand routes all digital-asset activity through Thai SEC-licensed platforms and blocks foreign ones marketing to residents.
Underneath sits the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 15, which requires jurisdictions to bring VASPs inside their anti-money-laundering perimeter. The FATF’s July 2026 Seventh Targeted Update flagged offshore VASPs, stablecoins, and unhosted wallets as unresolved supervisory gaps, exactly the seams the Philippine draft is trying to close on the payments side.
What the Draft Would Affect
The Philippines is one of the world’s most crypto-active markets, driven by roughly 10 million overseas Filipino workers whose remittances are in some cases routed through stablecoins, and by a domestic ecosystem that now includes a peso-pegged stablecoin (PHPC) and tokenized retail treasury bonds sold through PDAX and GCash.
Requiring crypto flows to move through direct, fully visible merchant relationships would alter how those assets connect to InstaPay and PESONet, the country’s real-time and batch payment rails, and would raise the compliance cost of every peso onramp and offramp.
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