Australian fintech Peppermint gets e-wallet license in the Philippines

Australia-listed fintech firm Peppermint Innovation announced that its unit has been granted a license to operate as an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines.

The EMI license authorises the Company to deliver e-wallet services through its bizmoto mobile App
allowing any Filipino, not just bizmoto agents, to use the bizmoto platform to receive digital money
and access digital services.

The accreditation allows Peppermint and bizmoto users to join the 38.881 million Filipinos that are
transacting digitally, following bizmoto’s integration with fund transfers services such as InstaPay and
PESONet and with non-banking institutions for cash-in and cash-out services.

The EMI license significantly extends the Company’s opportunity to reach micro-entrepreneurs and
provide digital payments for their businesses. They also can apply for bizmoPay loans, purchase
bizmoProtect micro-insurance policies and future bizmoto platform products and services.

Peppermint aims to connect marginalised Filipinos such as farmers, fishermen and micro-small-
medium entrepreneurs, as well as people living on day-to-day pay cheques so they can safely and
more quickly receive their salaries, pension, social security benefits and other government financial
assistance monies.

The company said it will soon start work on a pilot program with a local community to facilitate financial
inclusion by encouraging members to become bizmoto users so they can immediately access digital
and mobile payments as an alternative to cash transactions within their community.

“The issuance of an EMI licence for Peppermint will, ultimately, deliver significant value to the company and to the communities we operate in,” said Peppermint’s managing director and CEO Chris Kain.

“Clearly, the digital revolution is with us and the bizmoto platform can now facilitate any e–money
transaction and service open–loop e–wallet accounts, providing Filipinos with a convenient and secure
way to receive digital money and services.”