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The Philippine central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has set up a new fintech and blockchain unit to monitor the burgeoning sector.
Nestor Espenilla Jr, the BSP governor announced the creation of this special unit at a recent conference. It will be part of the bank’s National Retail Payment System (NPRS).
The chief of the central bank appointed Vicente de Villa III to serve as the Financial Technology Sub-Sector’s (FTSS) officer in charge. Falling under the Financial Supervision Sector, the FTSS will have the role of supervising blockchain and fintech companies.
A Boon for Digital Payments
According to the BSP, this move is a part of its concerted efforts to increase the use of digital payment frameworks across the country.
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An efficient retail payment system has the potential to transform the economy through the efficiency it brings to business transactions and the savings generated from a shift from paper-based to digital instruments,” said the BSP governor.
Organized by the Settlements and Payments Office of the BSP, the conference was aimed at increasing awareness of the need to ensure safety and integrity in the sector. This would only be made possible by the establishment of suitable innovative systems to facilitate efficient financial transaction processing.
De Villa III explained that the unit, which was set up a month ago, would be in charge of two sub-offices. One would be the Core Information Technology Specialist Group, and the other, a Payments and Settlements Oversight Department.
He highlighted the fact that though his office oversees banks, “
banks and technology nowadays have to come hand-in-hand.”
In addition to FTSS, a cybersecurity unit was also set up with the role of checking compliance in financial firms and protecting companies against breaches.
Espenilla concluded by saying that the ultimate goal of the NPRS would be to boost transactions in retail electronic payments to at least 20% by 2020.