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Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Republic of the Philippines, is the one to regulate the activities of non-bank institutions activating in Philippines that provide e-money services. Such decision was made in order to protect people from losses and deception.

According to Nestor A. Espenilla, who is the BSP Deputy Governor, the central bank looks forward to come up with legible instructions regarding the e-money business. Due to the fact that natural persons or agencies who obtain cash in order to convert them into electronic money possess public money, they are not different from banks and thus they should be regulated.

The bank will launch a series of regulations, including the rule on registration and adherence to the Anti-Money Laundering Law. It is worth mentioning that nowadays the e-money market is led by telecommunications companies, such as Smart Communications, Inc. that provides Smart Money service and Globe Telecom, with its G-Cash platforms.

Globe Telecom's clientele have the possibility to load their cell phones with electronic money by acquiring credits from authorized dealers like banks, sari-sari stores and a number of other merchants. Besides, customers are enabled to send e-money to their friends and/or relatives through text and those who receive the text message can convert the credits into cash at authorized establishments.

Rizza Maniego-Eala, president of G-Xchange, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Globe Telecom managing the G-Cash, considers that the proposed circular is not going to have any unfavorable effect on the electronic money industry.