A new move by The Philippine Central Bank has seen the creation of a new unit, the purpose of which is to monitor the creation and development of fintech and blockchain-based companies.
BSP announces a new unit
The Central Bank of the Philippines (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), or BSP, has just issued a new announcement that it will create a new unit dedicated to following up on blockchain and fintech startups. The new unit is to come as part of NRPS – National Retail Payment System.
Nestor Espenilla Jr., the Bank’s Governor, announced this move during a conference on Friday, July 27th. The bank appointed a new officer-in-charge, Vicente de Villa III, to supervise the FTSS (Financial Technology Sub-Sector), a sub-sector of the Financial Supervision Sector. His role will be to oversee fintech and blockchain-based firms, as part of the bank’s new initiative to improve the country’s digital payments.
According to Espenilla’s statement, the new and more efficient retail payment system can completely transform the country’s economy due to potential efficiencies that the system can bring into the sphere of business-related transactions and savings that would be made from the abandonment of paperwork in favor of digital instruments.
Modern times require modern tech
The conference was hosted by the bank’s Payments and Settlements Office and was to establish new financial transactions processing systems in the best possible way, ensuring integrity and maximum possible safety.
Additionally, de Villa III stated that it has already been a month since the unit was created. For now, it will have two individual offices, with a Core Information Technology Specialist Group and Payments and Settlements Oversight Department.
He added that they will continue overseeing banks but has also pointed out that modern times have seen the necessity to include technology in the banks’ business practices. Considering large increases in outsourced services, it is necessary to ensure they are governed by proper regulations and rules.
New cybersecurity unit to protect the companies
Another new addition came in the form of a cybersecurity unit, created to work together with FTSS, with a goal to check the compliance of various financial firms. This unit will also be responsible for the protection of companies and for anticipating and preventing potential security breaches in their systems.
Espenilla stated that the NRPS is expected to make sure that the new retail payment system is reliable, efficient, and, most of all, safe to use. The unit’s ultimate goal is to improve the number of transactions within the system and to raise it for as much as 20% by 2020.
This goal has been in the bank’s mind for a while now, and to achieve it, it launched two ACH (Automated Clearing Houses) in the last several months. The first one, PESONet, was launched on November 8th of last year. The second one is INSTAPAY which was launched on April 23rd of this year. Both are tasked with resolving various payment problems that have been troubling businesses, the government, and ordinary consumers.
