Increasing Rate In Philippines Economic Zone Crypto License

CEZA stands for the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, owned by the government of Philippines. It previously announced that 25 Financial Technology Solutions and Offshore Virtual Currency (Ftsovc) licenses will be issued. Bitpinas news outlet said that every licensee will be allowed “to establish a financial tech, crypto, and blockchain office” at the zone.

The Philippines News Agency says it was revealed last week by Ceza administrator and Chief executive officer, Raul Lambino: “17 fintech and offshore virtual currency firms have already paid in full the application and license fees for the digital coin trading under Ceza … 19 companies are in the pipeline to pay their application and license fees to Ceza.”

A license was awarded last week to Liannet Technology Ltd., which is a branch of the Apsaras Group. This license is the second issued by Ceza, the first was that of Hong Kong company Golden Millenial Quickplay Inc. in June.

Lambino was cited by the Philippines Daily Inquirer, revealing: “Other firms that had already paid fees to operate in Ceza were Formosa Financial Holdings, Sino-Phil Economic Zone Agency Development and Management Corp., Asia-Pacific International Ltd., Hong Kong Yuen Shing-Hong Ltd., Tanzer Inc. and Rare Earth.”

He said in a press release that income from Ftsovc application and license fees “exceeded 2017 revenue by more than 50 percent.” He added that the interest expressed by offshore companies to operate in Ceza “surpassed all our expectations,” taking into consideration that fintech operations are expected to create an initial 20,000 jobs.

The publication said that Ceza  “has earned more than P200 million [~$3.7 million] from offshore financial technology firms to raise its total revenues to at least P340 million [~$6.4 million] by the end of the second quarter of the year.” “Ceza expects to earn some PHP3.6 billion (~US$68 million) from the issuance of Ftsovc licenses, on top of the 0.1 percent share for every transaction value of registered digital coin exchanges.”