BSP opens rural-bank applications for SaaS core-banking support

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) RBSP digitalisation guidelines create a staged application, agreement and six-month deployment process for eligible rural banks seeking SaaS core-banking support.

Memorandum M-2026-042 is dated 12 August 2026. It says BSP will begin accepting applications one month after issuance, but it does not print a separate calendar opening date. The immediate owner is therefore the bank's board-approved application lead, who must establish eligibility and assemble the required evidence before the application window opens.

The technical assistance covers implementation of a software-as-a-service core-banking system and a 36-month subscription. Support remains subject to BSP approval; interest in modernisation alone does not establish eligibility.

Establish eligibility

The regulatory liaison owns the eligibility file, supported by finance and the bank's board.

The first condition is historical. The bank must have submitted an application or Letter of Intent between 21 September 2022 and 21 September 2025 under one of the RBSP tracks listed in the guidelines. Those tracks include merger or consolidation, acquisition or third-party investment, an upgrade of banking licence, and the Capital Build-Up Program.

That three-year period is not the deadline for the new technical-assistance application. It is evidence of the bank's prior participation in an eligible RBSP track.

The finance owner must also prepare a Certificate of Compliance showing the bank's capital position against the minimum capital requirements in Circular No. 1151. The guidelines require the Annex A template and the latest available cut-off date at the time of application.

The bank must not already have a cloud-based or SaaS core-banking subscription. That is another qualification condition, separate from the documents required to submit the application.

Completion evidence for this stage is the qualifying RBSP application or Letter of Intent, the Circular No. 1151 capital computation and confirmation that no existing SaaS core-banking subscription disqualifies the bank.

Submit the application

The regulatory liaison owns the filing, but the required documents draw on board, finance and technology owners.

The application package includes board-approved material, a signed self-assessment and an IT Outsourcing Questionnaire. These are submission requirements. They should not be confused with the historical RBSP-track condition or the capital qualification.

BSP must acknowledge the application and, within five banking days of receiving it and the documentary requirements, tell the bank whether the file is complete or whether more documents, information or clarification are required.

The five-banking-day period is a completeness review. It is not the substantive approval period.

Once BSP determines that the documentary requirements are complete, the Authority has 25 banking days to evaluate the application. The accountable regulatory owner therefore needs to distinguish the initial submission date from the later date on which BSP confirms completeness. The source makes completeness the dependency for the 25-banking-day evaluation period.

Completion evidence for this stage is the submitted package, its delivery record, any response to a BSP request and the BSP notice confirming whether the application is complete.

Execute the agreement

A favourable BSP notification creates a new deadline rather than completing the process.

Within 10 banking days of receiving that notification, the bank must submit scanned copies of the required documents by email to the addresses specified in the guidelines. The package includes the signed and notarised Technical Assistance Agreement and the related documents identified in the application sequence.

The legal owner is responsible for execution and notarisation. The regulatory liaison is responsible for transmission to BSP. The dependency is the favourable notification, and completion evidence is the executed agreement, notarisation record and dated submission.

The guidelines sequence these steps deliberately: eligibility comes first, completeness controls the start of evaluation, and a favourable evaluation triggers agreement execution. Treating the dates as one continuous clock would obscure which event starts each period.

Manage deployment and subscription

Implementation may last no more than six months. The clock begins when BSP issues the service provider a deployment notice covering the recipient rural bank; it does not begin with the bank's initial application.

The assistance expressly covers configuration, migration, integration, testing, training, commissioning, cloud services, support, updates and maintenance associated with the SaaS core-banking system. These services define the implementation scope supplied under the programme.

The bank's technology owner and the service provider must manage the deployment against the BSP notice. As an operational read-across rather than an additional requirement in the memorandum, the bank can use the listed services to assign workstream owners and retain evidence that each delivered service was accepted.

The subscription runs for 36 months after implementation. Procurement and finance own the commercial record; technology and operations own the service record. The memorandum establishes the duration, while each bank's internal acceptance, continuity and governance records remain implementation choices unless another applicable rule requires them.

The next accountable decision belongs to the application lead: before applications open, determine whether the bank can prove an eligible RBSP track, Circular No. 1151 capital compliance, the required application documents and the absence of an existing SaaS core-banking subscription.