PH digital banks chase profits as regulator ups the stakes

The first bank account that Isabel Bautista personally signed up for was with GoTyme.

“When I saw they were offering interest rates worth 5%, and that cash-ins were free of charge, signing up was as easy as ABC,” she tells Tech in Asia. She didn’t stop there. As of 2026, she has three accounts with three different digital banks, all of which are holding upwards of six-figures of her savings.

Ever since the country’s central bank – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) – issued digital bank licenses in late 2020, Filipinos have been spoiled for savings account choices.

Today, the six digital bank license holders in the Philippines each offer savings account interest rates that are higher than 3%. Traditional banks in the country offer an average of 1.8%.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Though Filipinos are cashing in on these offers, this hasn’t yet translated into profits for all digital banks. Only two of the digital bank license holders, Maya Bank and OFBank (Overseas Filipino Bank), are net profitable as of September 2025.

Yet, the BSP is expected to issue three more digital bank licenses by March. As early as 2023, the regulator has floated the idea of opening up the industry to new entrants.

Daniel Broby, program director of the Master of Science in Financial Technology department at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), says the three new entrants could likely be those that failed to make the cut the first time around.

Other industry watchers believe that the regulator is hoping to bring in a wave of new players who can potentially outperform the first six, which haven’t done as well as expected.

Slow loan book growth

BSP says the decision to accept new players can spur more healthy competition in the industry.

“We want to provide more choices for the market,” Melchor Plabasan, senior director of the Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department of BSP, tells Tech in Asia. “There are still products that the incumbents have not yet offered.”

Current digital banks, however, fear the added competition may be coming too soon.

Tonik CEO Greg Krasnov says adding new digital banks into the mix now could erode the margins of existing players. His firm was among the six digital banks granted a license in 2021.

“You need to give early players more time to establish both customer base penetration and establish the fundamentals before bringing in more competition,” he says.

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