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Senator De Lima urges immediate passage of crypto bill after P1B Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
Senator Leila M. de Lima has urged her fellow senators to push for the swift passage of her bill that seeks to impose stiffer penalties for crimes involving cryptocurrencies to prevent a repeat of the recent Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that reportedly swindled people of up to P1 billion ($19 million).
De Lima said she hopes the legislative chamber will give priority to Senate Bill (SB) No. 1694 which she filed last month, and to have a penalty that is one degree higher than what is provided for by Republic Act No. 3815 or the Revised Penal Code (RPC).
The former justice secretary made the appeal a few days after the arrest of the Ordonio couple Arnel and Leonady in an entrapment operation in Ilocos Sur, for luring people to invest in their online business – which they claim trades in Bitcoin — with a promise of a 30 per cent return on investments with payouts every 15 days. Initial payments were made but later on stopped, the complainants claimed.
BSP bats for national ID to boost financial inclusion
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is pushing for the implementation of the national identification system to improve financial inclusion in the Philippines.
BSP acting deputy director Ellen Joyce Suficiencia, stressed that once the National ID system is in place, more unbanked individuals would be able to open accounts with local banks.
A National ID system is in line with the central bank’s goal of digitizing 20 per cent of all Philippine transactions by 2020. The measure is scheduled to be discussed by lawmakers once Congress resumes in May.
Unisys taps PesoPay to advance online payments for Philippine Statistics Authority
Global IT company Unisys Corporation has tapped PesoPay, a local payment service provider, to enable online payments on the e-Census web portal of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), advancing delivery of public services to Filipino citizens residing here and abroad, reported The Manila Bulletin.
“Through PesoPay, we aim to provide both overseas Filipino workers and local residents with a secure and convenient means to pay online by credit card when requesting civil registry documents from PSA, including certificates of birth, marriage or death as well as certificates of no marriage record(CENOMAR),”
said Jose Ricardo M. Moran, Service Delivery Director, Unisys Philippines.
In 2016, Unisys was awarded a 12-year contract by the PSA to deliver digital government services to modernize the Civil Registry System – and manage the end-to end process to originate, authenticate, secure and issue civil registry documents to improve the accessibility and speed of service for citizens requesting official documents such as birth certificates. The modernization project is known as Civil Registry System – Information Technology Project Phase II (CRS ITP2).
PH market perfect for virtual currency says nChain CEO
Cryptocurrency adoption in the Philippines may still be very low but it is the “perfect market for virtual currency”, according to Jimmy Nguyen, CEO of research and development of blockchain technologies nChain Holdings Ltd.
Nguyen said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Philippines, that the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas is doing right in creating sensible regulation to improve consumer confidence.
“I think, first of all, it’s a good step for the government to begin sensible regulations for virtual currencies. Some people in the Bitcoin world don’t like that. I, particularly because I’m a former lawyer, think regulation can be a good thing and create more consumer confidence,”
Nguyen said.
In terms of the PHP 150 million ($2.9 million) minimum capital requirement imposed by the government on digital wallet operators, Nguyen thinks it’s quite low but “it’s a start.”
“That capital requirement is fairly low, but we are dealing with people’s money. I think it’s important to require the wallet operators and the exchange operators to have backing so that we avoid situations like in Japan—with the Mt Gox hack a number of years ago and a lot of people lost their bitcoin and didn’t have recourse against the company,”
Nguyen explained.
“So I think that’s probably a start and over time, as the exchanges and wallets get bigger, they’ll probably raise the capital requirement. I think that’s a sensible step,”
he added.
Mynt, Ant Financial launch GCash-Alipay QR payment for Chinese visitors
Globe Fintech Innovations Inc, (Mynt) which operates the Philippine-based mobile wallet GCash, and Ant Financial Services Group, operator of global mobile and online payment platform Alipay, jointly launched a new QR code solution that will enable local merchants to accept payment from both local users of GCash and Chinese visitors using Alipay via one single connection to GCash QR Code solution.
Alipay and GCash will work together with acquirers to promote this new QR code to enable local merchants to service an even bigger pool of consumers with seamless payment experiences. This service will be rolled out over the next few weeks across GCash’s merchant network, according to Globe Telecom in its press announcement.
“By jointly establishing this QR code with Alipay, all merchants working with GCash will be able to accept Alipay as a payment option for Chinese travelers in their stores, while also catering to the local user pool that have now grown to love our cashless lifestyle app. We are hopeful that our merchants can benefit from the increased footfall and revenue stream brought by the increasing number of Chinese tourists coming to the country,”
said Anthony Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mynt.
