Digital marketplace rules out within 1st half

THE BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) may issue regulations governing digital marketplace activities for banks and other central bank-supervised financial institutions in the first half, a senior official said, as the regulator moves to widen access to financial and insurance products through digital platforms.

“We’re coming up with a circular on digital marketplace,” BSP Deputy Governor Lyn I. Javier told a news briefing in Dumaguete City on Sunday. “This will be open to big banks or electronic money issuers opening their platforms to other financial service providers, including insurance companies.”

She said the draft circular is undergoing its final stage of review.

“The digital marketplace is coming very soon because we’re already finalizing it based on the inputs we have,” she said. “There’s just one final review for the physical touch points.”

The BSP last year released a draft circular outlining rules for banks and electronic money issuers offering products through a single platform, or so-called digital marketplaces. Under the framework, institutions may offer their own financial and nonfinancial products, as well as those of third-party providers, including insurance companies.

The proposed rules, however, prohibit banks and electronic money issuers from offering products linked to online gambling activities.

Separately, the BSP is also revising its bancassurance rules to allow banks to distribute insurance products from firms outside their financial conglomerates, BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat told the same event.

“We are finalizing guidelines that will allow banks to partner with insurance companies outside their existing financial conglomerate,” she said. “This broadens who banks can work with to offer insurance products.”

Bancassurance allows insurance companies to sell policies through bank branches and digital channels. Under BSP and Insurance Commission rules, banks may only distribute insurance products from companies within their corporate group.

Ms. Romulo-Puyat said expanding bancassurance partnerships would help improve access to insurance, particularly in underserved areas, given banks’ extensive nationwide reach.

The BSP expects the digital marketplace circular to be issued within the first semester, Ms. Javier said. — Katherine A. Chan