Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has circulated a draft circular that would suspend acceptance and processing of new Operator of Payment System, or OPS, applications for 12 months while it conducts a holistic review of payment-operator classification and licensing. Applications submitted before the suspension would continue to be assessed, but would receive neither approval nor denial until the pause ends, and firms could not begin OPS-regulated activities without separate authorization. Existing OPS and virtual asset service provider, or VASP, registrations would remain in force. The proposed rules would require licensed VASPs to use direct merchant arrangements with acquiring institutions, excluding payment facilitators or aggregators that collect or settle funds on a merchant's behalf. VASPs would be classified with other high-risk merchants and subjected to enhanced due diligence, transaction monitoring and risk-based limits. A National QR Code Merchant Database would record identification, licensing, ownership, settlement-account and sanctions-screening information for merchants using QR Ph. The proposal follows an extended moratorium on new VASP licenses and does not prohibit crypto trading, revoke existing licenses or identify individual firms.