Transact only with registered payment system operators, BSP tells public

Photo courtesy of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Facebook Page

MANILA, Philippines — The central bank on Monday urged the public to deal only with legitimate payment system operators when making financial transactions to help ensure that their rights as consumers are fully protected.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Filipinos should deal with, entertain product offerings, or carry out financial transactions only with BSP-registered Operators of Payment Systems.

Under BSP regulations, operators of payment systems include cash-in service providers, bills payment service providers, and entities such as payment gateways, platform providers, payment facilitators, and merchant acquirers that enable sellers of goods and services to accept payments, in cash or digital form.

The registration of a payment system operator allows the central bank to have oversight of the payment system it operates to ensure that it functions safely, efficiently, and reliably by itself and in relation to the National Payment System, consistent with the regulator’s objectives of consumer protection and financial stability.

All payment system operators must register with the BSP pursuant to Circular 1049 which provides for the rules and regulations on the registration of operators of payment systems.

According to the central bank rules, when a payment system operator is found to be operating without registration, the Monetary Board shall issue a directive to the entity to comply with the registration requirements.

If the payment system remains unregistered, the Monetary Board shall issue an order for the entity to stop from operating a payment system without registration and to take immediate action to register.

The central bank may coordinate with other regulators and concerned government agencies to inform them that the entity is operating a payment system without registration, and may be subjected to enforcement actions by the regulator.

At present, there are 150 accredited payment system operators, with the oldest having been accredited since late 2019 and the newest receiving central bank imprimatur only earlier this month.

To confirm if an entity is duly registered with the BSP, the public may view the list on the central bank’s website.

The public is encouraged to immediately report unregistered payment system operators to the central bank.