Digital banks in the Philippines
Digital banks in the Philippines are a new formal category of banks which were only approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country's central bank, in 2020. The first such banks launched in the Philippines were Tonik, Overseas Filipino Bank, and UnionDigital of UnionBank Corp. Several more banks were approved by the BSP before 2021, when it announced that it would stop approving the establishment of further digital banks for three years, in order to strengthen the industry and assure healthy competition among its players. Background. Digital banking and financial technology have  been one of the most rapidly growing industries in Asia, seeing large success in countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan. In Southeast Asia, Singapore is  at the top of the digital banking industry, with the Philippines only recently following suit when the need  for digital transactions rose during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A report by the BSP in 2019 claimed that 70% of Filipinos remained unbanked. A decline in check and ATM  transactions, as well as a rise in digital transactions, was also reported in 2020 by the BSP. Recognizing the necessity to digitalize, the BSP issued  Circular No. 1105 on The Guidelines on the  Establishment of Digital Banks in 2020, allowing digital banks to apply for their formal licenses. The BSP  aims to digitalize 50 percent of transactions and encourage at least 70 percent of Filipinos to open their  own financial accounts by year 2023. As of September 2021, it has given digital banking licenses to Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik, UnionDigital  of UnionBank Corp, UNOBank, GOTyme, and Maya Bank. The latter three have not yet been launched to  the Filipino public.   The BSP has also announced that it has stopped accepting applications for the digital banking  license for three years in order to preserve the competition among the new banks. List. Upcoming digital banks. The following digital banks were also given digital banking licenses by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in  2021 and have plans to launch their financial services to the Filipino public in the future.