PhilPaSS Plus transactions climb to P129 trillion in Q3

TRANSACTIONS done through the Philippine Payment and Settlement System (PhilPaSS) Plus reached P129 trillion in the third quarter of 2023 amid the increase in settlements between financial institutions.

This was 0.5% higher than the P128.32 trillion in the same quarter in 2022, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in its report on economic and financial developments in the third quarter of 2023.

PhilPaSS Plus is a real-time gross settlement system that processes and settles high-value transactions between banks through the demand deposit accounts of the lenders maintained with the BSP. The growing number of settlements by financial institutions prompted the BSP to upgrade the PhilPaSS system to PhilPaSS Plus on July 26, 2020.

Meanwhile, the total volume of transactions settled and processed by PhilPaSS Plus climbed 3.22% to 374,986 in the third quarter from the 363,277 seen a year prior.

This, as transactions made through financial market infrastructures (FMIs) and clearing switch operators (CSOs) grew by 10.1% year on year, and transactions between financial institutions (FIs) rose 8.4% annually.

“The increase in FMI and CSO transactions was due mainly to the growth in Delivery vs Payment (DvP)/National Registry of Scripless Securities (NROSS) and automated clearing houses (ACHs) transactions, which expanded year on year by 41% and 8.3%, respectively,” the BSP said.

The central bank said the growth in DvP/NROSS transactions came amid increased transactions in the government securities market as players preferred safer assets due to uncertainties in domestic and external markets.

“Moreover, the increase in ACHs transactions (i.e., transactions done via PESONet and InstaPay) can be attributed to the BSP’s continued efforts in digitalizing retail payments through the launching of Paleng-QR Ph Plus,” it said. —