Filipinos’ preference for contactless and cashless payments are on a rapid rise and gaining momentum even as mobility restrictions are being lifted, with majority of consumes anticipate a fully cashless Philippines within the next seven to 10 years, according to Visa’s latest Consumer Payment Attitudes Survey.
The survey showed that in 2021, use of cashless payments increased to 69 percent from 66 percent in 2020, while 83 percent of the population are aware they can transact all manners of payments digitally.
“Filipinos believe COVID-19 has accelerated the country’s transition to a cashless society by at least three years. Now, seven out of 10 consumers anticipate that the Philippines can become fully cashless within the next seven to 10 years,” said Dan Wolbert, Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam.
Wolbert said on Tuesday, March 29, that while cash is still predominant in transactions the “preference for cashless payments is clearly gaining momentum.”
“Our study showed more Filipinos are confident to get by without cash and for longer periods of time – with more than half feeling confident to get by for a week or longer, as cashless payment options grow,” he said.
The survey noted that cashless payments are increasingly being used for bill payments, supermarket expenditure, and retail shopping.
Wolbert, quoting the survey, said 64 percent of Filipinos use mobile wallets, and 52 percent prefer card payments online. Another 44 percent use card payments at physical merchants and 31 percent use QR payments.
“This shows that the pandemic has also driven the uptake of cashless payment methods, especially mobile wallets and card payments online, with a large number of first-time users due to the pandemic,” he added.
Visa said that in 2021, the second year of the global pandemic, the public health crisis continued to be the main driver of online shopping growth, especially digital purchases made via e-commerce apps. More consumers turned to online shopping and started using apps or websites to shop for the first time, it said.
“Movement restriction orders in the past year also led to an increase in in-home spends that included home office products, groceries, personal care items, and content platform subscriptions. Home delivery also remained high, with 1/3 of consumers being first-time users,” according to Visa.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is implementing a rapid digital transformation of the payments industry which began even before COVID-19.
Under the BSP’s National Retail Payment System, interoperable digital payment rails such as the PESONet, InstaPay, EGov Pay, and QR Ph facilities were established.
Last week, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said digital payments usage was driven by high-frequency, low-value retail transactions, such as merchant payments and person-to-person or P2P payments. Among payments by individuals, P2B or merchant payments and P2P transactions hold the biggest potential in further accelerating e-payments adoption, he said.
Diokno cited a 2020 e-payments measurement report which showed that one out of five or about 20.1 percent of the monthly volume of retail payments are already in digital form. The BSP wants 50 percent of all retail payments converted into e-payments by next year.
To improve the payments industry, the BSP will be launching more digital payment streams this year, such as Bills Pay and Request To Pay via InstaPay, and Direct Debit via PESONet.