The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) starts to prepare for the long-overdue launch of Google Pay and Apple Pay in the Philippines in 2026.
Philippines’ oldest bank expects its products to be ready for tokenization by next year. As per BPI president and CEO Jose Teodoro Limcaoco, their preparation comes as global mobile payment providers starts active discussions with local banks to ensure broad market support once it launches.
“We can be ready by next year,” the executive assured the media.
As a security measure, Tokenization will replace sensitive data, like user’s card number and account details with, with a unique digital identifier called a token.
This help fight fraud and strengthen security. The Bangko Sentral ng Philippines (BSP) previously said that the local financial institutions will remain the primary responsible for the integrity and security of the transactions.
But, Limcaoco added that such providers would only proceed if there are enough banks ready for integration.
“Google Pay and Apple Pay, just like any major product, have to launch with enough support. It’s crazy if one of them launches with just one bank. So they want as many banks to participate,” he added.
Also the head of the Bank Association of the Philippines (BAP), Limcaoco revealed that member banks already had talks with Google and Apple.
He confirmed that the arrival of Google Pay and Apple Pay will have different timelines and that BPI will follow their launch plans.