California-based company Astranis—which is set to offer satellite-based internet connectivity in the Philippines next year—is currently preparing the deployment of a satellite that will provide service to 2 million Filipinos, especially those in underserved communities. An Astranis spokesperson told the Inquirer they were finalizing a launch of several satellites, which will take place before the year ends. “The satellite for the Philippines will be launched alongside four other Astranis MicroGEO satellites on a dedicated rocket—and we ...
MANILA, Philippines — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will proceed with blocking the website of cryptocurrency giant Binance, saying that it posed a threat to the security of the funds of Filipinos. The corporate watchdog on Monday said its Commission En Banc approved on March 12 the filing of a formal request with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for assistance in blocking Binance’s website and other web pages it used. “The SEC has identified the aforementione...
The U.S. expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East. Nvidia said in a regulatory filing this week that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an “immediate material impact” on its results. Rival AMD also received an informed letter with similar restrictions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that the move h ...
A quarter of the people employed by licensed Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) firms are Filipinos, according to the country’s casino regulator, debunking the assertion of critics that the lucrative sector benefits only Chinese workers. Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chair and CEO Andrea Domingo said there were 30,521 Filipino employees working in these companies, which provide online gaming services to bettors overseas, primarily Ch...
“We need to ensure that the business environment continues to allow healthy competition... bank license. These include UNObank, UnionDigital Bank and GoTyme, while Overseas Filipino Bank...
In my previous article, I discussed the concept of pre-populated tax return and how it can make paying taxes as easy as 1-2-3 using behavioral science. To recall, a pre-populated tax return is a tax return that the government fills in on behalf of the taxpayer and the taxpayer’s only role is to pay the tax due or to inform the tax collection agency if any correction is needed. In essence, it reduces the process of filing tax returns into something like paying a credit card bill. When you pay y...
MANILA, Philippines —More policy tweaks, including further lowering licensing rates, would allow the e-games sector to make bigger contributions to the growth of the local gaming industry, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) said. In a statement, Pagcor Chair Alejandro Tengco said that while the regulator already made some policy changes that helped the e-gaming industry clock in a 92.32-percent revenue growth in 2023 to P58.16 billion, more measures are needed to achieve a better financial performance. ...
Bank lending grew in June but was relatively flat from the previous month as high interest rates tempered demand for consumer and business loans. Excluding their lending to each other, outstanding loans of big banks amounted to P12.1 trillion in June, up 10.1 percent compared with a year ago, preliminary data released on Thursday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed. The annualized credit growth in June was the same as the increase in May. On a month-on-month basis, the uptick in bank lending was relatively flat at 0.4 percent. ...
Pangilinan said if the rollout of micro modular reactors pushes through, the business relationship between Meralco and potential partners would be “a buyer-seller kind of a relationship....
MANILA, Philippines — As it continues its crackdown on unauthorized solicitation of investments, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the public against investing in any scheme offered by another unregistered company. In an advisory, the SEC said Rollyx Trading was not authorized to solicit investments from the public “nor to issue investment contracts and other forms of securities” as it was not registered with the commission. “The public is strongly advised not to invest or stop investing in any scheme offered by Ro ...