TRIALS APACE FOR LIVE RUN OF NEW PESO RTGS

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced on Wednesday that an industry-wide rehearsal is now in full swing for the live run of the new Peso real-time gross settlement (RTGS) platform of the next-generation Philippine Payment and Settlement System (Philpassplus).

In a briefing on Wednesday, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the Philpassplus has gone through “all major preparatory activities.”

“The outcome of this rehearsal will be a key consideration in determining the readiness of the Peso real-time gross settlement ecosystem to go live by June 2021,” Diokno said.

Philpass is a real-time gross settlement system that is owned and operated by the BSP. It processes and settles interbank payment transactions of banks through their demand deposit accounts.

The Philpassplus project was launched in December 2019. The development of this new facility aims to equip the country with state-of-the-art technology, enabling its RTGS to deliver comprehensive functionalities and settle larger volumes of financial transactions of varying types and complexities.

The BSP’S completion of the project’s user acceptance test in the first quarter of 2021 kicked off the market rehearsal wherein key functionalities of Philpassplus are being tested by banks and other participating institutions prior to implementation.

“Philpassplus is seen to significantly enhance the efficiency of funds flow within the economy. It is also expected to mitigate settlement risk among financial market players, aside from enhancing payment safety,” explained the BSP governor.

As Philpassplus will accept only communication messages which conform to the Swiftprescribed ISO 20022 format, it is expected to advance interoperability of payment systems across the Philippines and the integration of the country with other jurisdictions in the payment space.

“With this new-generation Peso RTGS system, the financial services industry will be able to keep pace with the rapidly progressing digital transformation around the country and anywhere in the world,” Diokno said.