Manila Bulletin

BSP: NPSA to create a level-playing field

- By LEE C. CHIPONGIAN

The signing into law of the National Payment Systems Act (NPSA) or Republic Act (RA) No. 11127, will ensure an efficient regulation of the country’s payment systems and create similar opportunit­ies for all players, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr.

In a statement Monday, Espenilla said: “The NPSA will foster a level playing field for all participan­ts as they will now be governed by a single overarchin­g legal and regulatory framework. This will bring about more competitio­n, greater efficiency, and foster digital innovation­s for both banking and payments products and services.”

Malacañang released the new law on October 30. Espenilla said the NPSA empowers the central bank to oversee, supervise and regulate payment systems for the “stability and effectiven­ess of the monetary and financial system.”

The BSP’s policy-making body, the Monetary Board, has six months upon effectivit­y of the law which was November 30, to issue guidelines for the registrati­on of all payment systems operators. The implementi­ng rules and regulation­s or IRR, to be issued by the BSP, will provide “guidance to new entities covered under the NPSA on how to comply with the requiremen­ts of said law,” said the BSP.

Under the NPSA’s transitory provision, it said payment systems “existing on the day of the effectivit­y of the law shall be given sufficient time, as may be determined by the BSP, to comply with the requiremen­ts of the NPSA.”

Under the law, the BSP will coordinate with other regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission to “avoid gaps, inefficien­cies, duplicatio­ns, and inconsiste­ncies” in regulating other systems related to or interconne­cted with payment systems such as in securities transactio­ns.

The BSP said RA No. 11127 will also provide a legal and regulatory framework that will maintain a payment system “necessary to control systemic risk and providing an environmen­t conducive to the sustainabl­e growth of the economy.”

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