Bank of the Philippine Islands is launching a pilot that uses stablecoins as a settlement layer for cross-border payments, beginning with inbound payroll for workers in the Philippines who are paid by clients overseas. The trial is being run with Meridian, a global digital clearinghouse, and will start with freelancers and virtual assistants in the informal economy.

Pilot focused on payroll inflows

According to BPI, the initial phase will process inbound payroll credits for recipients whose income comes from foreign clients. In this setup, stablecoins are not the end asset received by users. Instead, they serve as an intermediary settlement instrument before the funds are converted into Philippine pesos and deposited into recipient accounts.

Stablecoins are digital tokens typically designed to hold a fixed value by being pegged to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar. In the BPI-Meridian model, that feature is being used to support settlement for cross-border transactions rather than to keep recipients in crypto.

Regulatory conditions and expansion plans

BPI said the pilot will be carried out in coordination with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas under existing regulatory frameworks. Any move beyond the first phase will depend on compliance with consumer protection requirements and transparency around stablecoin reserves.

The bank plans to broaden the service to more clients ahead of the 49th ASEAN Summit in November, but that wider rollout remains conditional on those safeguards being met. The structure outlined by BPI suggests the project is being framed as a test of settlement infrastructure within current rules rather than a standalone new crypto product.

Part of a wider payments shift

The pilot comes as stablecoin-based cross-border transaction tools are already being used elsewhere in the Philippines. Crypto platforms including Coins.ph and PDAX offer services that let local users convert stablecoins and receive payouts. Cebuana Lhuillier has also said it is building stablecoin rails for cross-border remittances with Fireblocks and the Solana blockchain.

BPI’s move therefore adds a major bank to a growing list of institutions exploring how tokenized dollar-linked instruments might be used to move money across borders more efficiently, while still landing in pesos for domestic recipients.

A notable shift in tone

The initiative also marks an evolution in BPI’s posture toward digital asset infrastructure. In July 2021, after becoming the bank’s chief executive, Limcaoco said he did not regard private cryptocurrencies as an asset class because they lacked underlying value and legal backing. At the time, he indicated support for efforts by the central bank centered on central bank digital currencies rather than decentralized digital assets.

The current pilot does not change those earlier comments into an endorsement of broader crypto markets. But it does show BPI testing a narrowly defined use of stablecoins as a back-end settlement mechanism for cross-border payroll, under central bank oversight and with explicit conditions tied to consumer protection and reserve transparency.

Source: bitpinas.com