BSP grants e-money license to Abu Dhabi-based firm

The Philippine unit of Abu Dhabibased LuLu International Exchange LLC has received the green light from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to diversify into electronic money.

Melchor Plabasan, deputy director and head of the core information technology specialist group at the BSP, said the regulator has granted an electronic money issuer (EMI) license to LuLu-Phils. International Exchange Inc.

Plabasan said LuLu-Phils. is currently licensed by the BSP as a remittance transfer company doing business in remittance, foreign exchange, and money changer.

He added the company now wants to engage in the issuance of reloadable e-money instrument.

Its parent firm in United Arab Emirates is the fastest growing exchange or remittance company in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region with presence in Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Seychelles through its close to 200 branches .

The BSP has so far issued EMI licenses to 43 companies, consisting of 30 banks and 13 non-banks.

Other non-bank EMIs include OmniPay, Metrobank Card Corp., G-Xchange Inc., Alipay Philippines, Infoserve, PayMaya Philippines Inc., True Money Philippines, DCPay Philippines Inc., Wisecard e-Money Philippines Inc., Starpay Corp., Grab’s GPay Network Philippines Inc., and Ortigas-based SpeedyPay Inc.

Plabasan said the adoption of financial technology in delivering financial products and services has prompted the central bank to grant of more EMI licenses.

In 2004, the BSP first used this “testand-learn” approach to engage e-money pioneers as G-Cash and Smart Money were allowed to pilot e-money products.

This allowed the BSP to issue the regulatory framework governing the issuance of e-money and the operations of EMIs in March 2009.

Banks and non-banks continue to take advantage of opportunities from utilizing digital technology in financial transactions.

Technology has become an integral part of financial services amid growing number of clients who prefer products and services that can be accessed in the comfort of their homes or via electronic services.