The Monetary Board, the policy-setting body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said Thursday it approved the recognition of digital bank as a new bank category that is separate and distinct from current classifications.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno, who is also the chairman of the board, defines a digital bank as one that offers financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and/or electronic channels with no physical branches.
“Digital banks will play an important role in the digital financial ecosystem. We see these banks as additional partners in further promoting market efficiencies and expanding access of Filipinos to a broad range of financial services, bringing us closer to the realization of our target that at least 50 percent of total retail payment transactions have shifted to digital, and 70 percent of adult Filipinos have transaction accounts by year 2023. This is seen to remove sticky points and leapfrog our financial inclusiveness agenda,” Diokno said in a statement.
He said digital banking applicants were expected to have sound digital governance, robust, secure and resilient technology infrastructure and effective data management strategy and practices.