Digital payments gaining momentum in Phl — WB

More Filipinos are going online to pay bills and to receive remittances as the Philippines continues to make remarkable strides in indicators pertaining to digital payments.

The 2017 Global Findex published by the World Bank showed the share of Filipino adults who used the internet to pay bills or buy something online grew by 6.3 percentage points to 9.9 percent in 2017.

Furthermore, the World Bank said those who made or received digital payments in the past year also rose by 5.6 percentage points to 25.1 percent.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement the prospects look bright as the Philippines takes deliberate measures towards digitization.

BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. continues to champion the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) that was launched in December 2015.

“This is supported by other government initiatives such as the digitization of government payments and implementation of the Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap. The government is also setting the foundation of a digital ecosystem through legislative measures such as the biometric national ID bill and Payment Systems Act,” the central bank said.

The NRPS aims to establish a safe, efficient, affordable, and reliable electronic retail payments system in the country, with an increase in the share of electronic retail payments to at least 20 percent by 2020 from the current level of one percent.

There are about 2.5 retail transactions worth $74 billion per month in the Philippines.

The BSP has already launched Philippine EFT System and Operations Network (PESONet) that facilitates electronic fund transfer (EFT) from one account to another maintained in different financial institutions as well as the InstaPay that allows 24/7 low value electronic fund transfers of below P50,000.

On the other hand, latest data from the World Bank showed over a third of Filipinos aged 15 and above own a formal account. The survey showed 34.5 percent of Filipino adults now have formal accounts, 3.2 percentage points higher from 31.3 percent in 2014.

Compared with our ASEAN peers, the Philippines ranked in the middle with Singapore (97.9 percent) and Cambodia (21.7 percent) at opposite ends of the spectrum.

The country’s level of account ownership fell short of the average for East Asia and the Pacific (70.6 percent) and lower middle income countries (57.8 percent).