Philippines’ BPI tests stablecoin rail for overseas remittances

BPI has launched a pilot program using stablecoin settlement rails for cross-border payments, with the Philippine lender targeting faster and lower-cost remittances for freelancers, virtual assistants, and other overseas income earners.

• BPI has launched a stablecoin settlement pilot to speed up and lower the cost of cross border payments to Philippine recipients.
• The project will first serve freelancers, virtual assistants, and other overseas income earners before expanding ahead of the ASEAN Summit.
• The pilot will run with BSP coordination as the Philippines continues tightening rules for stablecoins and other digital assets.

According to local reports from ABS-CBN and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Ayala-led bank is working with global digital clearinghouse Meridian to test a stablecoin-based settlement system that will process inbound international payments before converting them into Philippine pesos for deposit into customers' BPI accounts.

The pilot will first cover payroll payments and overseas earnings received by freelancers, virtual assistants, and workers in the informal economy. BPI plans to extend the service to more customers before the 49th ASEAN Summit in November, when the bank expects to showcase the initiative as part of its digital banking efforts.

Rather than replacing existing banking infrastructure, the system uses stablecoins as a settlement layer between the sender and the recipient. Once the transfer is completed, recipients will receive Philippine pesos in their BPI accounts, allowing the bank to combine blockchain-based settlement with conventional banking safeguards.

BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Teodoro Limcaoco said the project builds on the bank's ongoing digitalization strategy, adding that the bank wants Filipinos receiving money from abroad to access their funds more quickly and at a lower cost without reducing security standards.

Meridian President and Chief Executive Officer Will Haering said the partnership demonstrates how stablecoin technology can be integrated into the banking system while maintaining reliability and customer protections.

The bank also said the pilot will proceed in coordination with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), with any future expansion depending on regulatory safeguards, including consumer protection measures and transparency around stablecoin reserves.

The project comes as Philippine regulators continue developing rules governing digital assets, tokenization, and stablecoin-related services.

In June, the BSP introduced stricter requirements for licensed virtual asset service providers, directing them to strengthen due diligence before listing cryptocurrencies. Under the central bank's guidance, exchanges must assess issuer background, market maturity, transparency, liquidity, legal compliance, and use cases before making digital assets available to customers.

The BSP also devoted additional attention to fiat-backed and asset-backed stablecoins. Its guidance said providers may need to examine reserve composition, redemption rights, issuance and burning mechanisms, and the quality of backing assets to ensure users can redeem tokens under normal market conditions. The central bank further required continuous monitoring of listed assets and reiterated that privacy coins remain prohibited for licensed VASPs.

Separately, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission has continued using its Strategic Regulatory Sandbox, or StratBox, to test digital asset products under regulatory supervision. Speaking during Philippine Blockchain Week in June, SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo said the regulator had become comfortable that the country's existing legal framework could accommodate tokenized assets, while noting that sandbox participation does not exempt companies from existing laws.

According to the SEC, four companies have already entered the sandbox, including a tokenized real estate project and firms testing investment products linked to U.S. equities. BlockShoals Technologies also received approval to test crypto-related services within the program.

Earlier this month, the SEC granted BlockShoals final approval to begin StratBox testing with Binance as its global crypto-asset service provider partner. The BSP later clarified that neither BlockShoals nor Binance currently holds a Philippine virtual asset service provider license and said participation in the SEC's sandbox does not replace separate licensing requirements overseen by the central bank.

BPI's latest initiative also adds to the Philippines' growing use of stablecoin technology for payments.

In 2024, Philippine cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph expanded its peso-backed PHPC stablecoin to the Ronin blockchain, allowing users to move funds and spend gaming earnings more easily within the country. The Ethereum-based stablecoin is backed one-to-one by the Philippine peso, with Coins.ph maintaining reserves consisting of cash and other traditional financial instruments.

For BPI, the latest pilot targets a different segment by focusing on cross-border settlements handled through the banking system rather than blockchain-native payments. If the trial proceeds as planned, the project could provide overseas workers, freelancers, virtual assistants, and other recipients of foreign income with a faster settlement process while keeping transactions within the country's regulated banking framework.

Any broader deployment, however, will remain subject to coordination with the BSP and compliance with regulatory requirements covering consumer protection, reserve transparency, and other safeguards outlined for stablecoin-based financial services.

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