BSP RAMPS UP FOCUS ON DIGITAL MONEY SYSTEMS
BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno announced on Wednesday that they have established a new sector tasked to manage the “interplay” of physical currency and digital money into the economy.
The new sector will be called the Payments and Currency Management Sector (PCMS). Its function is to consolidate existing currency and payment management units and carry the responsibility for producing banknotes, coins and securities documents, as well as refine gold and print cards for the national ID.
The Monetary Board has thus named digital finance services and inclusive finance expert Mamerto
E. Tangonan as deputy governor of the newly established sector.
“PCMS is tasked to maintain the safety and integrity of the local currency and to ensure a well-functioning payments and cash ecosystem that supports sustained and inclusive economic growth,” Diokno told reporters. “This is aligned with the BSP’S Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, which
aims to achieve efficient, safe and inclusive payments ecosystems.”
PCMS will also be in charge of anti-counterfeiting operations; currency forecasting; currency retirement; and the servicing of bank deposits and withdrawals in the greater Manila area (cash operations in the regions are performed by regional offices and branches).
According to Tangonan, they are looking to roll out more digital payment streams in the next two years.
“We will be working very closely with the BSP internal units as well as industry participants in the payments industry in order to roll out and make available in the market the additional digital payment streams. One of them would be like QR Ph. So that would enable us to digitize over-the-counter merchant payments, and even online purchases,” Tangonan said.
“The other one is the bills payment. Most of the households in the Philippines pay bills. So, that would increase the usage of digital payments. We will be also launching, together with the industry, a service called ‘Request to Pay,’ which will digitalize the way we collect money or payments,” the new deputy governor added.
Aside from that, Tangonan said they are also looking to launch “direct debits,” a program that will digitize installment payments, rental payments and those that are regularly occurring payments.
Immediately before joining the BSP, Tangonan led a six-year Usaid-funded program on the EPESO project aimed at accelerating the shift of the Philippine economy from cash to digital payments.
In this capacity, he spearheaded a team in providing technical assistance to the BSP in the policy formulation and implementation of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS). He also worked with the BSP in obtaining industry buy-in for the NRPS.
He also served as general manager of PT Smart Telecom; director of Globe Telecom Inc., where he handled the project management of G-cash mobile banking project for rural banks; and first vice president of ING Life Insurance Co. (Phils.) Inc.
Tangonan took his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of the Philippines and his executive MBA from the Asian Institute of Management.