Philippine banks are working to tokenize their cards, a key step toward integrating with technology service providers Apple Pay and Google Pay, a top official of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said.<\/p>\n
According to BPI president and chief executive officer Jose Teodoro \u201cTG\u201d Limcaoco, banks will first have to tokenize their cards, which would entail replacing card details with a \u201cstand-in\u201d number saved on a user\u2019s device to enhance security by protecting actual account data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BSP has now ruled that they don\u2019t have to be payment service providers, so now they\u2019re free to go. What they have to do is make sure that the banks who want to participate have their card products capable of being tokenized,\u201d he said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n
This comes as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier said Apple Pay and Google Pay do not qualify as operators of payment systems (OPS) as they do not plan to hold funds for Filipino users, removing the need for prior registration.<\/a><\/p>\n Both Apple Pay and Google Pay allow users to make financial transactions through near-field communication (NFC) devices, enabling users to tap their smartphones or smartwatches to make payments using linked debit or credit cards and e-money accounts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some technology that has to be worked on with the card system. The banks have to make sure that the cards can be tokenized and also to make a successful launch, Google Pay and Apple Pay\u2014just like any major product\u2014have to launch with enough support, enough volume if you will,\u201d Limcaoco said.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore it\u2019s crazy if one of them launches with just one bank. They want as many people to be able to participate. I suspect they\u2019re waiting until enough banks tell them \u2018Okay, na kami [We\u2019re okay]\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n BPI, the country\u2019s third-largest bank with P3.435-trillion in assets as of end-June 2025, is not yet ready to tokenize but Limcaoco said this may be achieved in 2026: \u201cI cannot tell because it\u2019s different. Kaya [We can] next year.\u201d<\/p>\n