BSP: Link ASEAN e-payment networks

MANILA -- The Philippine peso gained strength against the greenback while the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) bounced back to the 7,800mark on Monday, April 30, right before the market takes a one-day break for Labor Day.

The local currency finished the day’s trade at 51.74 from last Friday’s 51.965.

Meanwhile, the country’s main stocks gauge gained 98.23 points or 1.27 percent to close at 7,819.25 points.

All the other counters tracked the main index with the All Shares up by 1.10 percent, or 51.33 points, to 4,723.16 points.

The sectors were led by the Mining and Oil, which surged 1.83 percent, and was followed by the Holding Firms, 1.78 percent; Industrial, 1.48 percent; Services, 1.30 percent; Financials, 1.18 percent; and Property, 0.26 percent.

Volume totaled 974 million shares amounting to P6.41 billion.

Advancers surpassed decliners at 130 to 84 while 45 shares were unchanged.

MANILA -- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla raised the possibility of linking instant payment networks within member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to enable crossborder payments, following the launch of the country’s second automated clearing house (ACH) called InstaPay.

“The more interesting prospect, potentially, is to link up the instant payment networks regionally,” Espenilla told reporters in an interview.

Espenilla said Instapay, as it matures, could be connected with its counterparts throughout the Asean region for cross-border collaboration.

“What you can do in the Philippines, you can do it cross-border, at least in Asean. So those are the big possibilities here,” Espenilla said, saying that linking up the countries’ payment infrastructures is “very doable.”

Espenilla noted that a pilot test has already been conducted to connect Singapore’s PayNow system to Thailand’s PromptPay. InstaPay is the second ACH under the central bank’s National Retail Payment System (NRPS) after PESONet, which was launched in November 2017.

This platform reportedly allows consumers a safe, affordable and real-time electronic payment mode for up to P50,000 per transaction without limit in a day. Charges may apply to the sender or the recipient of the fund depending on the terms of the financial institution to be tapped.