The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed revised rules for equity and debt crowdfunding conducted through online platforms. The draft would permit issuers to raise up to PHP 25 million within 12 months from any investors and more than PHP 25 million up to PHP 100 million from qualified investors. Retail investors earning up to PHP 2 million annually would be limited to investing 5% of annual income across all crowdfunding issuers, rising to 10% for those earning more than PHP 2 million, while qualified investors would not be subject to these limits. Only registered broker-dealers and investment houses could operate as crowdfunding intermediaries. They would face strengthened requirements covering issuer due diligence, conflicts of interest, investor education, disclosures, segregated trust or escrow accounts, cybersecurity, business continuity and cessation planning. Retail investors would receive a cooling-off period of at least five business days, while material cybersecurity incidents would have to be reported within 24 hours. Issuers would also be subject to ongoing material-event reporting and annual reports due within 105 calendar days after fiscal year-end. Debt crowdfunding platforms would have additional obligations for credit assessment, pricing and cost disclosures, arrears and default management, recovery reporting and backup servicing. Existing intermediaries and issuers would have six months from the revised rules’ effectivity to comply, unless the Commission sets a different period for a particular requirement.

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