The Philippines is about to stop accepting new payment operator applications entirely, and the reason is crypto.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has circulated a draft circular proposing a 12-month freeze on new registrations for payment system operators, according to the draft circular published by the central bank. The stated purpose is a “holistic review” of the existing licensing framework before any further operators are let in. Applications already in the pipeline before the freeze takes effect can continue moving through evaluation, but the BSP will not approve or deny any of them until the pause lifts.
The freeze is paired with tighter rules for how BSP-supervised institutions handle virtual asset service providers. The draft would require enhanced due diligence, ongoing monitoring, transaction limits and risk-based controls specifically for payment arrangements that touch VASPs, whether those providers are licensed by the BSP, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, or another domestic authority. Supervised institutions offering merchant services to VASPs would be required to work through direct merchant arrangements only, closing off indirect routes that have made oversight harder to enforce. The circular is open for feedback now and would take effect 15 days after publication once finalized.
Read against the region, this is not an isolated move. Singapore’s central bank has spent the past week pushing its own stablecoin rules toward statutory force while simultaneously funding the next phase of its fintech innovation program, the same two-handed approach of tightening one door while funding another that the BSP’s freeze mirrors. The original insight for compliance teams: a registration freeze aimed at “integrity controls” functions as a de facto moratorium on new market entrants regardless of how it is labeled, and firms with Philippine payment license applications pending should expect a year of limbo, not a quick approval, however clean their file is.
