BSP eyes relaxation of bancassurance rules in H1 2026

DUMAGUETE CITY —The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking to update its bancassurance guidelines to enable local institutions to offer insurance products beyond their group of companies moving forward.

According to BSP deputy governor Lyn Javier, the central bank is coming up with a circular that will provide for the creation of a digital marketplace to give banks access to offerings outside their respective platforms.

“‘Yung limitation kasi (Because the limitation) is under the law, banks would only distribute products within their group of related companies, so the first approach that we did was just to limit it to physical touchpoints,” she told reporters.

“Now we’re coming up with a circular on digital marketplace. It’s open for like the big banks or EMIs (electronic money issuers) opening their platform to other financial service providers, including insurance companies so you could actually have access to insurance products through digital platforms,” she added.

Javier said the new guidelines are expected to be released in the first half of the year, but did not give a specific timeline for the rollout of the digital marketplace.

Plans to relax bancassurance rules were floated as early as 2008 by then deputy governor and former governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., as rules dictated that only banks with insurance subsidiaries were allowed to sell life insurance products to their clients. —LDF, GMA Integrated News