BSP finalizes blueprint for crossborder payment

MANILA — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is set to issue the blueprint for multilateral cross-border payments connectivity among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said the Philippine central bank is prioritizing the establishment of interoperable cross-border, real-time retail payments systems among ASEAN member states.

Tangonan told reporters that the BSP is addressing challenges, such as high costs, limited access, low speed and lack of transparency.

He said the BSP has partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank Negara Malaysia.

“We’re also working on cross-border payments. We will be completing the blueprint of this scheme this year,” he said.

The Philippines’ InstaPay scheme can be linked with Singapore’s PayNow and Malaysia’s DuitNow for cross-border transactions. Of the 1.7 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2020, about 5.3 percent are in Singapore and 1.5 percent are in Malaysia.

“We have a large Filipino community based in Singapore. We anticipate that this will bring a lot of benefits for them because we’re working to make this one of the least expensive cross-border remittance service in the market,” Tangonan said.

Furthermore, Singapore and Malaysia are among the top 10 country of residence of tourists that visited the Philippines in 2019 or prior to the pandemic.

Tangonan said Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are consistently among the top trading partners of the Philippines.