Businesses to benefit from PESONet

To transform the Philippines from being a cash-based to a cash-lite society, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), together with the financial institutions, introduced the PESONet. Launched late last year, PESONet, an interbank Electronic Funds Transfer service, stands to benefit companies that still transact using traditional cash or check payment systems, to go electronic. PESONet is the country’s first Automated Clearing House (ACH) under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS), the BSP’s landmark policy whose objective is to increase e-payment transactions to 20 percent by 2020 for more inclusive economic growth and financial inclusion.

With PESONet, the BSP hopes to start a digital revolution in the financial sector in the delivery of financial services to the people. By enticing more companies and financial institutions to tap into this inclusive platform, this will also help business-to-business, government-to-business, business-to-consumer or even government-to-consumer payments flourish more because PESONet is convenient, affordable, fast and secure. This means savings in terms of time, manpower and even energy costs, yet remain efficient due to automation.

Businesses and government can now pay their suppliers, their bills and even their employees electronically even across different banks and financial institutions. Through PESONet, payments can be done anytime and anywhere with ease, speed and security. PESONet allows transfer of funds and other volume or bulk transactions between accounts held among participating banks.

And it’s easy to use since it only takes a few steps to get started and reap its benefits. Simply log on to the participating bank’s online or mobile banking platform, choose “PESONet,” or Transfer to Other Bank, enter payment details, press send, and payment is sent to beneficiary’s account within the same day at full value. It’s that simple, and there’s no need to open a new account. No more fees deducted from the payee; no more uncertainty on when payee will receive the payment.  Companies, even the government, can help improve current payment processes to be electronic rather than cash or check-based.

“There is no doubt that technology is fast changing and we have to adapt to consumers’ demanding preferences. PESONet is part of our commitment to upgrade the country’s retail payment system, promote electronic payments, and facilitate inter-operability among financial institutions for faster settlement of transactions, thereby achieving our vision of a ‘cash-lite’ economy,” declares BSP Gov. Nestor Espenilla, Jr.

Customers will truly love using this financial innovation since they will be able to send same-day credit funds transfers  to accounts with any participating financial institution. If they are the beneficiaries, they will receive the full value of the transfers on the same business day. Moreover, PESONet provides speed, convenience and utmost security so every transaction is absolutely safe.

PESONet also offers even greater benefits for financial institutions, allowing them to cross-sell their products like deposits and loans, even investments and insurance. Moreover, customer satisfaction and retention rates will increase while reducing costs for check payments.

PESONet is available on the following banks’ online/mobile channels:  ANZ Bank, Bank of America, Bank of China, Citibank, CTBC Bank, Deutsche Bank, Development Bank of the Philippines, Eastwest Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, HSBC, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Ltd., PNB, Shinhan Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, UCPB, Unionbank and Yuanta Savings Bank.

As further commitment to improve the country’s e-payment systems, the BSP also launched this year “InstaPay,” the latest ACH under the NRPS framework. With InstaPay, ordinary persons, companies and even government agencies can transact in real time and send and receive funds of up to P50,000 per transaction, 24/7. There is no limit on the number of transactions per day.  PESONet is indeed a welcome game-changer in the Philippine financial system to further expand interoperability among the financial institutions. PESONet is also an opportunity for smaller industry players such as thrift and rural banks to have greater participation in the retail payment system.

For more details about PESONet, visit www.pesonet.info or visit www.bsp.gov.ph.

ADVT