Fintech, 30 banks partner for fund transfer

JUST until recently, it was still true to say that doing fund transfers were simple in idea but relatively timeconsuming to do and fulfill. Customers used to – and in most cases still are – falling in line in banks to do bank to bank or even interbank fund transfers, spending precious hours to do so. Now, this could all be history thanks to a new GCash feature: free fund transfers.

nation’s leading mobile money service GCash have fully rolled out its fund transfers service, allowing customers to transfer funds from their GCash App to any of the over 30 banks supported nationwide. Thanks to this feature, fund transfer times have been virtually reduced to zero and paper wastes eliminated, as it will only take less than 3 minutes to complete a transfer transaction digitally.

Philippine fund transfer services are notorious for having exorbitant fees and antiquated paper processes, the former of which depends on a certain percentage of the money you’re transferring or a fixed fee, with a turnaround time depending on the volume of people per bank or money transfer service branch.

With GCash, all a customer needs are smartphone, funds in their GCash account, and the bank details of the account they’re transferring funds to. Once these are inputted, they can just sit tight and relax as the confirmation message arrives on their device. This service also allows for transfers anywhere in the Philippines where there is data connectivity present. The app also is open to use for all networks, be it Globe, Smart, Sun, Talk n’ Text, or TM.

Fund transfers are an integral part of the Philippine financial ecosystem. It’s widely used for sending money for personal purposes such as for family needs, bills payments, or even paying online sellers for products ordered on social media platforms. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects the nation to have at least 20% of its financial transactions to be made electronically by the year 2020. This includes banks and Electronic Money Issuers (EMIs) which GCash is classified under.

“Fund transfers used to be a long, bogging process where customers will just wait for their turn on the cashier just to have money delivered onto another account. With GCash’s new feature, over 15 million customers can now transfers funds to more than 30 banks for free, and without taking hours,” said Anthony Thomas, President and CEO of Mynt. “This convenience, combined with all the services available in the GCash App, makes for a perfect all-in-one financial tool for all Filipinos. It also ties back to GCash’s mission of financial inclusion in the Philippines,” he added. Mynt is the operating company of GCash.

GCash, for its fund transfer service, utilizes the InstaPay platform initiated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. It is an “Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) service that allows customers to transfer funds almost instantly between accounts of participating BSP-supervised banks and non-bank e-money issuers in the Philippines.”

Getting a GCash account is easy. Just download the GCash App for free from the App Store or from Google Play and sign up for an account. Alternatively, you can look for @gcashofficial on Messenger and sign up.

To fund their GCash account, a user can visit over 16,000 GCash partner outlets nationwide, like 7-Eleven, SM Business Centers, Robinsons Business Centers, Puregold branches, and Villarica Pawnshop branches, and tell the cashier to cash-in to their GCash account. Cashing-in to a GCash account is free.