Fintech group backs BSP oversight of online lenders

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May 14, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s largest financial technology industry group backed proposals to place online lending platforms under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), saying centralized oversight could reduce regulatory gaps and streamline compliance.

FinTech Alliance.PH founding chairman Lito Villanueva said the group is backing discussions between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the BSP on the possible transfer or sharing of supervisory powers over online lending platforms (OLPs).

The SEC earlier said it wants to transfer oversight of financing and lending companies to the central bank, while the BSP said the two agencies are studying whether such a move would require legislation or could be done through regulatory issuances.

“We support that,” Villanueva told reporters yesterday. “The SEC itself has expressed support for transferring regulatory oversight of online lending platforms to the BSP. Even the authority to set interest rates should be with the BSP.”

Villanueva said the fintech sector has been part of ongoing discussions on the future regulatory framework for OLPs, including the SEC’s plan to lift the moratorium on new online lending platform licenses and impose higher capitalization requirements on players seeking to operate lending apps.

He also said consolidating regulatory authority could help limit “regulatory arbitrage,” or situations where firms take advantage of overlapping or fragmented oversight by different regulators.

“If we limit potential regulatory arbitrage, compliance would be more seamless and advantageous to players,” he said. “Compliance is very costly, so a more centralized framework would make policies more streamlined and clearer.”

The BSP currently supervises banks and regulates finance companies and non-bank institutions with quasi-banking functions, while the SEC oversees lending and financing companies, including online lenders.

Meanwhile, Villanueva said FinTech Alliance is preparing to reframe its “80 by 80 by 2028” digital inclusion vision after the BSP’s latest survey showed a decline in individual formal account ownership.

Last year, the group set a goal of having 80 percent of Filipino adults using digital transactional accounts and 80 percent of retail payments done digitally by 2028.

However, the BSP’s 2025 Consumer Finance and Inclusion Survey showed that only 50 percent of Filipino adults owned a formal financial account in 2025, down from 56 percent in 2021.

“We are trying to reframe our 80 by 80 vision,” Villanueva said. “Having to create accounts is one thing. But having to ensure that usage or utilization of those accounts, or those accounts remain active, is another thing.”

He said the industry’s next push should shift from pure customer acquisition to sustained account usage and retention, especially as many accounts end up inactive, dormant or maintained with zero balance.

The BSP’s 2025 survey similarly concluded that access alone is no longer enough, stressing the need to deepen the use of financial products and services beyond basic transaction accounts, improve financial capability and strengthen consumer protection.

Villanueva added that fintechs would need to create more compelling use cases that make consumers keep accounts active, rather than using them only as temporary channels for receiving aid, remittances or transfers before quickly cashing out.

The remarks point to a broader shift in the country’s financial inclusion agenda, from expanding the number of accounts to ensuring that those accounts are actually used in ways that support payments, savings, credit access and day-to-day financial resilience.