RCBC sees stablecoins as future of cross-border fund transfers

Only 3 of 4 major Philippine banks currency cater to crypto exchanges.

RCBC is preparing for stablecoins as a method of cross-border fund transfer.

As regulations and compliance standards are set, more Filipinos will likely start sending remittances and payments using the blockchain, said Ryan Tongson, first vice president and head of global Filipino banking and financial technology at RCBC.

Only three or four major banks in the Philippines currently cater to crypto exchanges, Tongson told attendees of the Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia Summit 2026 - Manila.

Activities are currently all for wholesale banking, such as liquidity management, real-time funding of wholesale transactions, or wholesale funding for cross-border payments.

“Of course, in the future, there will come a time that stable coins or crypto funding will be mainstream— meaning us as retail users,” Tongson said.

It will be just like opening an e-wallet, he added.

Tongson looks forward to stablecoins, saying that it will be able to do cross-border money movements 24/7 for 365 days. He said it would be like a “global Google sheet” that not one single person controls but whose past entries cannot be deleted.