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Regulatory · Philippines · Sun 9 Aug · 3 min read

BSP national ID mandate tightens KYC on VASPs and e-wallets

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What happened

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has released a draft rule requiring all BSP-licensed Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), e-wallets, and banks to integrate the Philippine National ID (PhilSys) into their Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The rule is still in draft form, but the direction is clear: national ID verification becomes a baseline requirement, not an optional layer, for any entity holding a BSP license.

The PhilSys national ID system has been operational in the Philippines since 2021, but adoption by financial institutions has been uneven. This draft rule would standardize the integration, forcing every licensed VASP to verify customer identity against the PhilSys registry as part of onboarding and, likely, ongoing account maintenance.

Why it matters

Sources: BitPinas

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