BSP cites study showing cashless payments on the rise in PH

By: Daxim L. Lucas, Inquirer Business, 2 Dec 2019

Commitment to electronic payments was renewed at a summit held on Monday, Dec. 2, headed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The “Digital Payments Leaders Summit” was used as venue for the release of a study by the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance which showed that use of electronic payment methods in the Philippines had grown from just 1 percent of all transactions in 2013 to 10 percent in 2018.

The value of e-payments jumped higher from 8 to 20 percent in the same period.

Women are ahead of men in the use of digital payment systems, the study said.

According to BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno, the study’s findings affirmed that “significant progress is attainable through effective cooperation” toward achieving a “cash-lite economy.”

The use of electronic systems for payments and other transactions normally done in cash has “the immense potential to foster financial inclusion.”

Summit leaders, according to Diokno, listed areas in which they could cooperate on electronic payment systems like social benefit transfers, payments to merchants and billers, payments to suppliers and remittances.

Those were key transactions where digital payments would apply more widely.

Diokno said steps are being taken to bring the country “closer to our ultimate objective of having an inclusive payment system where no adult Filipino is left behind in terms of access to payment and other basic financial services.”

The BSP is actively promoting electronic payments and recently launched the EGov Pay facility which allows online payment of taxes and government fees.

It also launched the QR PH which allows person-to-person money transfers through QR codes in their mobile phones or devices.

The BSP is being helped by the Philippine Payments Management Inc. in the initiatives.