I-Remit gets license as e-money issuer

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has given Filipino-owned non-bank remittance provider I-Remit Inc. the green light to operate as an electronic money issuer amid the rising number of Filipinos embracing digital payments.

Melchor Plabasan, director of the BSP’s technology risk and innovation supervision department, said the Monetary Board has approved the registration of I-Remit as an electronic money issuer.

This brought to 20 the total number of non-bank EMIs.

I-Remit is the largest non-bank remittance service provider listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange with a growing network of more than 1,000 outlets consisting of subsidiaries, branches, agents and tie-ups in 23 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

 It continues to invest in and upgrade its infrastructure to ease payment processes, bring down costs for remitters and strengthen the security of its systems.

 I-Remit launched its online facility IREMITX in Canada, Singapore, Japan, UK and soon in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It also partnered with San Francisco based fintech, Ripple, making I-Remit the first Filipino company to move money across borders on a full blockchain.

 The initial partnership I-Remit has forged on the RippleNet is with Malaysia’s Top International Fintech MoneyMatch. I-Remit has a wide and diversified network for service fulfillment in the Philippine remittance industry now totaling 18,000.

 Aside from I-Remit, other non-bank EMIs include ridesharing giant Grab’s GPay Network Philippines. SpeedyPay, OmniPay, Metrobank Card, G-Xchange, Alipay Philippines, Infoserve, Lulu-Phils International Exchange, PayMaya Philippines, True Money Philippines, DCPay Philippines, Wisecard e-Money Philippines, Starpay, Zybi Tech, Airpay Technologies Philippines, Togetech, Ecashpay Asia, Tagcash Ltd Inc. and MarCoPay Inc.

 Latest data from the central bank showed e-money transactions went up by 22.4 percent to P628.9 billion in the first half. 

The increase was achieved despite the 19.2 percent decline in the number of inflow and outflow transactions to 234.01 million from January to June.

E-money transactions coursed through banks inched up four percent to P459.86 billion while those coursed through non-banks more than doubled to P169.02 billion.