The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday, Aug. 26, announced that PhilPaSSplus is now on a live run for a more secure and larger settlement capacity which includes equity trades, on top of the current foreign exchange (FX) and bond trades.
The BSP migrated from PhilPaSS, which was first established in 2002, to PhilPaSSplus in July this year.
The BSP-operated PhilPaSSplus is the country’s next-generation Peso real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) with a double capacity for settlements of up to 20,000 per day from the previous 10,000 per day.
BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said Thursday that the Peso RTGS payment system has been expanded to cover equity trades in addition to the present FX and bond trades that are already settled through PhilPaSSplus.
Diokno said enhancements to Peso RTGS also includes: the accommodation of more financial institutions, including those serving marginal sectors; and acceleration of digital payments transformation by offering PhilPaSSplus as an advance and secure settlement platform that payment service providers can truly rely on in terms of availability, efficiency, and security.
PhilPaSSplus has higher volumes of payment instructions and operates in a more secure environment. “For instance, a transaction now goes through a review process involving at least three persons, instead of two persons, before the transaction is transmitted to the core settlement system,” said Diokno.
He said the new system also runs under an integrated solution that significantly enhances system availability and speed of settlement compared to the old RTGS system that could be accessed through SWIFT and a participant browser only.
"Equipped with advanced features, PhilPaSSplus is a key milestone in our continuing efforts to have an efficient, secure and inclusive digital settlement platform for both large value and retail payments," said Diokno.
The BSP said more than 170 financial institutions – mostly banks --- are currently using the PhilPaSSplus to settle their clients' ATM, InstaPay, PESONet, and check transactions.
PhilPaSS volume and value of daily transactions have increased to more than 6,400 with a value of P1.6 trillion, compared to only 1,400 transactions amounting to P340 billion in the first five years of its operation in 2002.