BSP Authorizes Two More Digital Banks, Focuses on Cyber Resilience
The Central Bank of Philippines (BSP) recently allowed two more banks—UnionDigital Bank Inc. and GoTyme Bank Corporation—to operate as digital banks, thus taking the number of digital banks in Philppines to six; other banks with digital bank approvals are Tonik Digital Bank, Inc. and Maya Bank Inc, Overseas Filipino Bank Inc (a digital banks of LANDBANK), and UNObank Inc. BSP also announced completion of the Advanced SupTech Engine for Risk-Based Compliance (ASTERisC*), which is a solution that streamlines and automates regulatory supervision, reporting, and compliance assessment of cybersecurity risk management of the supervised financial institutions.
BSP plans to deploy ASTERisC* solution among select BSP-supervised financial institutions to further enhance cyber resilience and public trust and confidence in the financial system. As part of the Lead Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) covering all BSP supervised financial institutions, the Financial Supervision Sector—Technology Risk and Innovation Department of BSP plans to issue the Financial Services Cyber Resilience Plan, which will serve as the primary framework for policies and strategies to strengthen cyber defense in the financial services industry and is expected to bolster the regulatory and supervisory environment for cyber security. Going forward, BSP will continue to engage the BSP supervised financial institutions, relevant government agencies, and industry associations for a cohesive and industry-wide approach to address emerging threats and risks as well as to enhance the cyber incident response and threat intelligence. Coming back to the increase in the number of digital banks, the regulator notes that the operations of digital banks support the BSP Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, which aims to digitalize half of the total volume of retail payments in the country and onboard at least 70% of Filipino adults into the formal financial system by 2023.
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Keywords: Asia Pacific, Philippines, Banking, Cyber Risk, Regtech, Suptech, Basel, Digital Banks, BSP
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