More bitcoin exchanges plan to operate in the Philippines to take advantage of the widespread popularity of social media and huge remittance market in the country, an official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Wednesday.
Melchor Plabasan, deputy director and head of Core Information Technology Specialist Group of the BSP, said in a news briefing 12 more companies applied to do business in the country. Two virtual currency or bitcoin exchanges are currently operating in the Philippines.
“Of these 12, eight have already completed the documentation requirements while the four have completed the presentation of their business models,” Plabasan said. He said the 12 firms were mostly incorporated with parent firms operating abroad.
Plabasan said these firms saw the Philippines as an ideal market for bitcoin business because of the country’s technologically-savvy citizens, widespread popularity of social media, high percentage of the population without access to banking services, growing business process outsourcing and IT sectors and huge remittance market, which is ranked third in the world.
Rebittance Inc. and Betur Inc. are currently operating in the Philippines.
