By LEE C. CHIPONGIAN
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said the “new economy” of digital or e-payments is expanding faster than anticipated due to the restrictions of containing the COVID-19 outbreak, and will likely reach 50 percent of all payments transactions before mid-2023, which was the BSP’s target.
“With e-payments, there is a substantial decrease for physical transactions which is appropriate under current circumstances,” Diokno said during Thursday’s virtual “GBED Talks”. “We hope to leverage on this development as we shift to the new economy to reach our target of 50 percent e-payments in 2023, if not sooner.”
The BSP noted a decline in check and cash transactions while critical areas including Metro Manila are under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The volume of ATM transactions, for example, has decreased during the lockdown.
BSP Managing Director Vicente T. De Villa III said that before ECQ, several banks have applied to increase ATM fees and some were approved, but the new fees were never implemented because of the lockdown after the BSP called on the banks to waive the fees on interbank ATM services.
While on ECQ, Villa said the utilization of ATMs dropped by 25 percent in terms volume while in value, this decreased by 30 percent. Banks charge ATM fees for its maintenance cost but during a lockdown, majority of bank customers and even non-clients are transacting payments digitally.
With the decline in check-based and cash-based financial transactions of businesses, households, and individuals, the BSP said opportunities for digital payment channels and services, such as PESONet and InstaPay, has started to gain momentum.
Diokno said: “We see the use of digital payments gaining momentum in the post-coronavirus environment as more financial institutions embrace digital transformation to provide more efficient and safer services, while consumers and institutions, including the government, continue enhancing access to digital payment facilities.”
The latest data showed that InstaPay grew in volume by 509,151 percent from 1,740 in April 2018 when it was launched, to 8.86 million in April 2020. PESONet also went up by 330,000 transactions in November 2017 to 1.08 million in April 2020, or up by 228 percent.
“The digital life is upon us,” said Diokno. “We can harness this to ensure that technology does not only lead to better social connections and convenient business transactions, but also and more importantly, for all Filipinos to have access to welfare-enhancing financial services.”
InstaPay is for “urgent” and small value transactions, and used to transfer money up to P50,000. PESONet is for high value transactions of companies, other businesses, government agencies and individuals. Money transfers under PESONet have no transaction limit per day.