Millions of Filipinos now use e-wallets to pay bills, buy groceries, and send money. But much of that history may not appear in traditional bank or credit records, making it hard for those individuals to get loans.

Open finance is supposed to change this. Filipinos leave a long digital trail showing how they earn, spend, save, and pay, but this information is scattered across banks, e-wallets, insurers, investment platforms, and more. There's no simple way for this data to be shared securely when needed.

Open finance is like a permission system that lets financial companies share your data when you ask them to. Instead of going through hoops, a bank or e-wallet could send selected information through an application programming interface (API). Think of the API as a digital connector that lets two systems exchange information in a standard format.

But it's not a free-for-all. You should be able to decide what information is shared, with whom, and for what purpose, then withdraw that consent later. Open finance leans more into financial inclusivity, especially for the underbanked.

Digital payments accounted for 57.4% of retail payment transactions by volume in 2024, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Yet the records created by all that activity may not always follow consumers when they approach another financial company.

A freelancer may not receive the same income every month, but regular payments, stable cash flow, and years of bills paid on time evidenced on e-wallets could still show that they manage money responsibly, possibly reducing their interest rates for credit.

The BSP has already begun testing the concept. Under an open finance pilot for Personal Equity and Retirement Accounts (PERA), verified customers can authorize a bank or e-wallet to send existing information to a PERA administrator.

The Open Finance and Consumer Data Empowerment Act of 2025, seeks to give consumers greater control over their financial records and provide a clearer legal foundation for the BSP's open finance framework.

Consumers will be allowed to obtain their information in a portable, structured, and machine-readable format for free at least once every calendar quarter. They could instruct a company holding their records to securely transfer a copy to a BSP-accredited recipient.

As of July 2026, however, the measure was still pending in the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries.

Key Facts

  • Digital payments accounted for 57.4% of retail payment transactions by volume in 2024.
  • Filipinos use e-wallets to pay bills, buy groceries, and send money.
  • The BSP has already begun testing the open finance concept.
  • Consumers will be able to obtain their information in a portable format for free at least once per quarter.
  • The Open Finance and Consumer Data Empowerment Act is still pending in the House committee.

This is still a developing story, so we'll follow it closely and provide updates as more information becomes available.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been working to make financial services more inclusive, especially for those who don't have traditional bank accounts.