Philippines

The Philippines supervises securities through the Securities and Exchange Commission and banking and foreign exchange through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. There is no domestic licensing category for retail CFD brokers, and the SEC's position on unregistered operators is stated frequently and plainly.

The SEC advisories

The Commission publishes a steady stream of advisories naming specific entities soliciting Filipino investors for forex, crypto and "investment" schemes without registration, stating in each case that the entity is not authorised to solicit investments from the public. The volume of these advisories is itself informative about how heavily the country is targeted.

Selling securities or soliciting investments without registration is an offence under the Securities Regulation Code, and the SEC has pursued operators and, in some cases, local promoters and endorsers.

Remittances and the peso

Overseas Filipino workers send home an enormous volume of remittances — a very large share of GDP — and that steady dollar inflow is a structural support for the peso, working against what trade and interest rate analysis alone would predict. It is another instance of the general point that the flows moving a currency are often not the ones in the macro narrative.

The BSP manages the peso with intervention to smooth volatility rather than targeting a level.

Why the schemes work here

Remittance income, high financial-services access through mobile wallets, strong English, and dense social networks combine to make the country a prime target. Schemes spread through family, church and workplace groups where questioning an introduction feels like an insult to the person who made it.

The defences are unglamorous and effective:

• Check the SEC advisories by name before anything else.
• A guaranteed monthly return is not a trading result, whoever recommended it.
• Commission for recruiting others identifies the structure regardless of the product named.
• Never grant remote access to your device.

Checks

Search the SEC's advisory list and company registration search, and verify any foreign broker on its own regulator's register.