Per their statement last week, the Anti-Red Tape Authority turned down Lyka’s request for automatic approval on March 6, noting that the company did not submit all documents required to assess its financial stability and viability.
ARTA’s decision came after Michael Bryant T. Lim, the president of Lyka, turned to the governing body with the approval request as the Securities and Exchange Commission itself apparently failed to act on the registration.
In October 2021, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas upheld a cease-and-desist order it issued earlier against Lyka by denying a request from a marketing agency to be registered as an operator of payment system of the social media platform. Suspected money laundering activities and violations of the National Payment Systems Act were among the reasons behind Lyka’s suspension, after which merchants panicked and attempted in droves to cash-out their earnings from the app.
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As further explained by ARTA, the fact that Lyka was under scrutiny regarding concerns about its data privacy policies and security was also why the company’s registration could not be automatically approved. The Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 stipulates business permits and applications shall be automatically issued should government agencies fail to act on these requests within the prescribed processing time.
Lyka rose in popularity in the Philippines for its gamified system that lets users earn virtual gems and converted these to real money.
Source: PhilStar
This article, LYKA’s automatical approval request for company registration denied, was originally published at NoypiGeeks | Philippines Technology News, Reviews and How to’s.