By Alexandria Grace C. Magno
THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) is studying a possible lifting of the moratorium on registering latest online lending platforms.
“The moratorium is already long — it’s already long, so I said it’s about time to check [whether] to lift it,” SEC Chairperson Francisco Ed. Lim told reporters on the sidelines of an event on Monday.
In November 2021, the SEC imposed a moratorium on the registration of latest online lending platforms run by financing and lending firms because it worked on rules to curb predatory lending and abusive debt collection practices.
“We wish to open up the moratorium — to lift the moratorium to enable greater firms to come back,” Mr. Lim added.
In keeping with a 2025 report by leading global digital payments firm Visa, the Philippines faces a $206-billion (around 12.2 trillion) funding gap for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the second largest within the Asia-Pacific, as a consequence of financial barriers hindering their growth.
The company regulator said it’s reviewing the P1-million minimum capital requirement for online lenders, and noted that it could be increased. “It might be P5 million, or it could be P10 million,” Mr. Lim said.
He said lenders were drawn to high effective rates of interest, prompting them to aggressively lend out limited funds. If payments faltered, they generally resorted to aggressive or abusive debt collection tactics. “We wish to weed out those firms,” Mr. Lim noted.
He added that the SEC targets releasing draft rules by the primary quarter of 2026. “Liberalizing the principles. That’s my focus this 12 months,” Mr. Lim said.
From January to Sept. 15 last 12 months, the SEC handled 5,415 public complaints involving financing and lending firms and their online platforms. Of those, 3,570 complaints, or 66%, involved unfair debt collection practices or collection harassment. Amongst them, 3,315 complaints were filed against unregistered financing firms, lending firms, and online lending platforms (OLPs), while 435 complaints targeted unregistered entities or unrecorded OLPs.
The commission has said that unregistered online platforms are amongst the important thing concerns that must be addressed by law enforcement agencies.
Financial sector experts welcomed the SEC’s move to expand online lending platforms, citing the potential for greater competition, innovation, and improved credit access — particularly for underserved MSMEs and individual borrowers — through higher pricing, data-driven risk assessment, and consumer-friendly products.
Philippine Institute for Development Studies senior research fellow John Paolo R. Rivera, nevertheless, cautioned about risks reminiscent of a resurgence of abusive practices, including hidden fees, harassment, and weak data privacy, if licensing, supervision, and enforcement lag behind market entry.
“Any reopening ought to be phased and conditional, with tighter fit-and-proper rules, caps on abusive fees, real-time reporting, and powerful coordination with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, National Privacy Commission, and law enforcement to make sure consumer protection keeps pace with growth,” Mr. Rivera said.
Juan Paolo E. Colet, managing director at China Bank Capital Corp., stressed the necessity to issue licenses only to well-capitalized firms that uphold ethical business practices.
“The regulatory goal ought to be to not only expand the credit market, but to also make it equitable for all stakeholders,” he said.
Last 12 months, the SEC issued Memorandum Circular No. 14, which imposed recalibrated ceilings on rates of interest and charges for small consumer loans by financing and lending firms.
It set a 6% monthly cap on nominal rates of interest and a 12% monthly cap on effective rates of interest for loans as much as P10,000 with terms of as much as 4 months, down from the previous 15% monthly effective rate cap allowed by the Monetary Board and SEC.