The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued Circular No. 1198, Series of 2024, (Circular) providing framework governing Merchant Payment Acceptance Activities (MPAA).
The policy covers any Operators of Payment System (OPS) engaged in or intending to engage in MPAA. OPS-MPAA shall include merchant acquisition services.
An OPS is considered engaged in MPAA in the Philippines if the OPS, merchant, or both are located in the Philippines.
Licensing Requirements
An authority from the BSP must be obtained prior to engaging in merchant acquisition in the Philippines. An OPS that intends to engage in merchant acquisition shall secure a Merchant Acquisition License (MAL) with the appropriate supervising department of the BSP.
An OPS granted with MAL by the BSP, henceforth OPS-MAL, is not required to register as OPS and is considered compliant already. While Banks and EMI-NBFIs that intend to engage in merchant acquisition as part of their normal or allowed business operations need not apply for a separate license from the BSP, but needs to submit prior notification to the BSP.
Capital Requirement
For companies with average monthly value of collected funds transferred to merchants of less than Php 100 million, the minimum required capital is Php 5 million. While those average monthly value of collected funds transferred to merchants of Php 100 million and above, the minimum required capital is Php 10 million.
For OPS with concurrent banking or EMI-NBFI License
An OPS engaged in or intending to engage in MPAA that has a concurrent banking or Electronic Money Issuer-Non-Bank Financial Institution (EMI-NBFI) license is expected to adhere to the more stringent requirements between the guidelines in the Circular and the applicable provisions of the Manual of Regulations for Banks (MORB) or Manual of Regulations for Non-Bank Financial Institutions (MORNBFI) to satisfy the overall regulatory expectations of the BSP.
As regards payments to merchants, the OPS-MAL shall maintain designated account/s with BSP-supervised Financial Institutions (BSFI) where funds received or collected on behalf of merchants are held separate from OPS-MAL’s own funds and shall be properly accounted for.
The settlement period shall be agreed upon by the OPS-MAL and the merchant, but shall not be longer than two (2) business days from the day the funds are received by the OPS-MAL for transfer to a merchant.
Relative to pricing mechanism, OPS-MAL shall adopt a pricing mechanism whereby merchant fees may be charged to merchants availing of MPAA. Such pricing mechanisms shall be reasonable, transparent, market-based, and proportional to the cost of the services offered in order to sustain the business operations of the parties involved.
On reportorial requirements, the guidelines under Section of the Manual of Regulations for Payment Systems shall apply to OPS-MPAA.