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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider The Stock Market devider Tighter BSP rules hit GCash, Maya earnings; analysts expect continued headwind

Tighter BSP rules hit GCash, Maya earnings; analysts expect continued headwind

Published Dec 9, 2025 01:36 pm
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) order for e-wallets to sever links with online gaming applications has weighed on the earnings of both gaming companies and the e-wallet platforms themselves.
Unicapital Securities Inc. Research Analyst Peter Louise D. Garnace said the unlinking of online gaming platforms likely “dragged” the third-quarter 2025 performance of market leader Mynt (owner of GCash).
Mynt registered third-quarter revenue of ₱20.9 billion, a two percent decline from the second quarter, and a net income of ₱4.3 billion, which was 27 percent lower than the previous quarter.
Despite the quarterly dip, Mynt’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) contributed ₱5.3 billion in the first nine months of 2025, surging 52 percent year-on-year. This accounted for 25 percent of Globe Telecom’s pre-tax net income, up from 14 percent in the same period last year.
Garnace expects the headwind to continue, noting, “We view the unlinking of online gaming apps to continue weighing on Mynt in the succeeding quarters as we believe [the] central bank’s order to ban online gaming on e-wallets [is] to remain in place.”
Meanwhile, the PLDT group’s fintech unit, Maya, also experienced a quarter-on-quarter drop in profitability, Abacus Securities Corp. noted.
Management attributed the decline to two main factors: “First was a ‘slight impact’ from the delinking of gaming sites but it was more the result of higher NPLs [non-performing loans] from the lending business with the ratio nearly doubling from end-2024’s 3.5 percent to 6.3 percent.”
COL Financial Research Analyst Paolo Miguel Manansala cited the specific decline in contributions: Mynt’s third-quarter 2025 contribution to Globe profits fell 27.4 percent to ₱1.5 billion, while Maya’s contribution to PLDT dropped 16 percent to ₱200 million.
“These declines were mainly attributable to the delinking of online gambling websites from e-wallets, leading to lower transactions,” Manansala said.
On the gaming side, DigiPlus Interactive Corp., the country’s leading digital online gaming firm, reported a 59 percent drop in net income to ₱1.71 billion for the third quarter. However, profits still showed a 16 percent growth to ₱10.11 billion in the first nine months of 2025.
DigiPlus disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that the third-quarter decline was “due to the impact of tighter regulation, which required e-wallet providers to delink in-app access to licensed online gaming platforms.” This temporarily disrupted player activity and transaction volumes. Consequently, the company's third-quarter EBITDA decreased 55 percent to ₱2 billion, and revenues contracted 23 percent to ₱19.05 billion.
Despite the temporary earnings moderation, DigiPlus Chairman Eusebio Tanco expressed confidence in their strategy.
“This period demonstrates DigiPlus' resilience amid temporary setbacks. Throughout this period, we continue to focus on digital innovation, player protection, and good governance,” Tanco said.
Mananasala, however, noted an early sign of recovery, stating that DigiPlus’ management reported “volumes have recovered 10 percent to 20 percent from the lows, with the lost revenues mostly coming from casual players. As such, the two digital wallets could see some recovery in gambling contributions in the subsequent quarters.”

Related Tags

Mynt GCash Maya PLDT Inc. Globe Telecom Inc. Unicapital Securities Inc. Peter Louise D. Garnace Abacus Securities Corporation COL Financial Digiplus Interactive Corporation Paolo Miguel Manansala
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