After nearly five years of keeping the door shut, the Philippines is letting new online lenders back in. Starting August 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission will lift its moratorium on registering new online lending platforms, a ban that had been in place since 2021. But anyone hoping to launch a lending app will find the rules considerably tighter than they were before.
The moratorium was originally imposed to rein in a wave of abusive digital lenders, many of which harassed borrowers and operated with little oversight. Lifting it reopens one of Southeast Asia’s most active fintech markets, where digital credit has become a common option for Filipinos who lack access to traditional bank loans. The SEC’s framing is that it wants to balance financial inclusion with responsible lending, rather than simply flinging the gates open.
That balance shows up in the details. Alongside lifting the ban, the SEC has raised capital and disclosure requirements for financing and lending companies, and layered in a set of consumer protections aimed squarely at the practices that made the old market notorious.
The most significant of those protections target how lenders treat borrowers’ personal data. Online lenders will be barred from accessing or scraping borrowers’ contact lists, social media contacts, or messaging records from their phones. Using that kind of personal data to harass borrowers, or to expose their debts to friends and family, will be prohibited. Automated debt-collection messages are also banned, with one narrow exception: neutral payment reminders that carry no threats or coercive language.
There are underwriting requirements too. Lenders will have to register with the Credit Information Corporation and actually use credit data when assessing a borrower before approving a loan, a step meant to curb reckless lending to people who cannot realistically repay.
The reopening comes as the SEC continues to crack down on operators working outside the system. The commission has published lists of unregistered lending apps found circulating on the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, and various websites, warning that these platforms often skip consumer-protection safeguards and lean on abusive collection tactics. Borrowers are urged to check whether an app is registered with the SEC before taking out a loan.
For the country’s fintech sector, the shift is significant. The moratorium had effectively frozen new entrants for years, leaving the field to companies registered before 2021. Reopening it, under stricter terms, invites fresh competition while raising the cost of doing business badly. Whether the new framework delivers on both promises, more access and fewer abuses, will depend on how firmly the SEC enforces it once the apps start coming back.
