On August 02, 2018 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Government of Philippines proposed rules that it intends to use in regulating investors who intend to utilise the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) as a means of raising funds either through Private Placements or making it Public – a process similar to the Initial Public Offering.
The Philippines SEC has extensively addressed that any intended ICO project that will be conducted within its Jurisdiction will have to make an application known as Initial Assessment Request. The SEC will require the applicants to proffer a duly filled form, incorporation documents, the resume which has pictures of the people forming the team, exhaustive previous experiences, previous and current companies that any of the team members are working or worked – at least five years. Lastly, information concerning bankruptcy, convictions, suspension from a self-regulating organisation, violation of commodities, securities, banking, real estate or insurance laws.
The regulations require the team to be cleared by the police, the project to be formed in tandem with the regulations, the token-economy should be well described, notarized undertaking on issues of the listing of tokens in any virtual currency exchange, legal opinion concerning the white paper, and payment of the fees. In addition, there is a threshold for those who can act as Advisors
The SEC has come up with stringent policies on how to draft the White Paper, not to mention that the SEC will have the discretion to direct an applicant to amend the White Paper for it to be in tandem with the SEC Regulations.
Other imperative factors addressed therein include Registrations of Security Tokens, Exemption from Registration of Security Tokens, allowed Advertising, Prohibited Advertising, Reportorial Requirements, and Miscellaneous Provisions.
