A bill filed in the House of Representatives aims to give millions of Filipinos without bank loans or credit cards a better chance of qualifying for financial services by allowing lenders to use alternative financial data when assessing creditworthiness.
House Bill No. 9149, or the Open Finance and Consumer Data Empowerment Act of 2025, proposes the country’s first legal framework for consumer-directed financial data sharing. If enacted, the measure would give consumers the legal right to authorize accredited lenders and financial service providers to access up to 24 months of their financial and transaction history.
The data may include bill payments, e-wallet transactions, subscription payments, rewards card activity, and other digital records. The goal is to help lenders assess borrowers who have little or no traditional credit history.
The proposal addresses a gap in the Philippine financial system, where many consumers actively use digital payment services but still struggle to access formal credit because they lack bank loans, credit cards, or deposit accounts.
“The digital economy has outpaced our regulatory infrastructure. Filipinos are generating rich financial data every day through their phones, their e-wallets, and their utility payments. We aim to leverage that data to democratize access to financial tools and services that have long been unavailable for millions,” Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre, a co-author of the bill, said.
The proposal comes as digital payments continue to grow in the Philippines. Digital payments accounted for 57.4% of all retail payment transactions in 2024, while an estimated 58 million Filipinos use e-wallets.
“Open Finance legislation matters because it accomplishes two things at once: it directly expands financial access for consumers, and it opens new markets for industry to competitively serve customers the system has ignored,” said Todd Schweitzer, a board of trustee at the Fintech Alliance Philippines.
Schweitzer said many Filipinos already generate enough digital records to show responsible financial behavior, but current regulations do not allow consumers to easily use those records when applying for loans.
“Filipinos are digital natives, though, and have rich data sources beyond banking data to demonstrate their creditworthiness. What’s been missing is the legal right to put that data to work, and the mandate for data-holding institutions to provide that data upon the consumer’s request. This bill arrives at the right moment: the digital rails and data privacy standards are in place, demand is clear, and this bill would establish a pioneering framework to unlock a more consumer-centric financial services industry,” he said.
The bill also proposes creating a Consumer Data Commission (CDC) under the Office of the President. The commission would oversee consumer data sharing across banks, financial institutions, telecommunications companies, utilities, and other organizations that hold consumer data.
Chaired by a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner and co-led by at least a deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the CDC would set technical and security standards for data transfers, accredit authorized data recipients, conduct compliance audits, enforce penalties, and submit annual reports to Congress. The commission would also review the law every two years.