4 Philippine Banks Aim To Revolutionize Digital Payments

Cryptocurrency is gaining a foothold in a Southeast Asian country after several local banks team up to launch a new stablecoin for its citizens to invest into digital assets.

Four Philippine banks are preparing to introduce a multi-bank stablecoin to further allow Filipinos to become part of the cryptocurrency landscape, revolutionizing the country’s cross border transactions.

New Stablecoin

A new Philippine Peso-backed cryptocurrency would allow real-time cross-border remittances within the year.

Blockchain analyst Ledger Insights revealed that UnionBank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking, Cantilan Bank, and Rural Bank of Guinobatan collaborated to launch a multi-issuer Philippine stablecoin, leading the way for a new innovative financial instrument in the developing Asian country.

https://twitter.com/LedgerInsights/status/1877346884580221021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank

“Later this year, several Filipino banks plan to launch the PHPX stablecoin for cross border remittances & more on Hedera DLT,” Ledger Insights said in a post.

The four domestic banks will join forces to introduce PHPX, a stablecoin backed by the Philippine fiat currency, a peso-backed stablecoin.

The blockchain analyst said that PHPX’s goal is to enhance the cross-border payments and financial inclusion in the Philippines, which will be launched on Hedera decentralized ledger technology (DLT) network.

According to the four local banks, Filipino crypto users can start using the PHPX token for their transboundary by middle this year since they are eyeing that the new Philippine stablecoin would be up and running anytime between May and July this year.

Easier Cross Border Remittances

The multi-bank partnership said that the objective of the collaborative effort is to beef up the transboundary payments of Filipinos and allow them to exchange stablecoins in different currencies.

Leading the collaborative effort is UnionBank of the Philippines through its fintech subsidiary UBX. The subsidiary has been exploring for years how to use blockchain technology in the local financial industry such as running a quasi-stablecoin network.

“We need to create something that is publicly exchangeable, so that we can support use cases outside of our own closed loop ecosystem,” UBX CEO John Januszczak told Ledger Insights in an interview.

PHPX To Benefit Filipino Overseas Workers

The Philippine banks said that Filipinos working in other countries and sending money to their families in the Philippines would greatly benefit from the PHPX because it allows real-time remittances.

Januszczak said that Filipino overseas workers usually send their money to someone in the Philippines to look after the bills such as the educational expenses of their children.

“We want Filipinos that are earning money in the US (or elsewhere) to be able to pay their kids’ school tuition directly from the United States (and) for that payment to be effected in real time,” the UBX executive explained.

Ledger Insights explained that participating banks will have to abstract the stablecoins in the backend, saying after that, the PHPX coins can be deposited or sent into a “bank account, a GCash wallet, or cash pickup at an over-the-counter location.”

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView