National ID sufficient to open bank account—BSP

A graphic representation of the national ID. Art by Ed Lustan

MANILA, Philippines—The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday (Nov. 9) reminded banks and the public that the country’s national ID—currently being rolled out by the government—is sufficient proof of identity to open a bank account.

The BSP reiterated its earlier endorsement of an advisory issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) telling all government and private entities to accept the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID in accordance with the law.

“PhilSys will help more Filipinos, especially the marginalized and low-income, to begin saving money in banks and other financial institutions,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said.

He added that the national ID system will support the wide scale opening of transaction accounts, particularly the basic deposit account, which is designed to meet the needs of the “unbanked”.

In support of the earlier PSA advisory, the BSP’s issuance instructed financial institutions that the PhilSys ID, in both physical and mobile formats, shall be accepted without the need for another ID.

It also emphasized that PhilSys will offer online and offline methods for identity authentication through the national ID’s physical security features, QR code digital verification, biometric verification and one-time passwords via SMS.

These features will facilitate stronger and more secure methods of identity verification than traditional methods such as manual matching of handwritten signature against specimen.

Financial institutions are likewise directed to include the national ID on their list of valid identification documents to be displayed on their counters, public entrances of their establishments, websites, social media accounts, and other consumer information channels.

As a foundational digital ID system, the BSP considers PhilSys to be a “game changer” for financial inclusion where most Filipinos will have access to a wide range of financial services.

Aside from contributing to the opening of transaction accounts, PhilSys was expected to improve financial services and accelerate the country’s transition to a digital economy.

The BSP considers PhilSys a major infrastructure component of its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, which was launched in October 2020 with these goals:

• Have 50 percent of total volume of retail payment transactions done digitally by 2023 from 19 percent in 2019
• Bring account ownership among adult Filipinos to 70 percent by 2023 from 29 percent in 2019.

As of October, the number of transaction accounts opened due to the co-location of PSA registration sites and Land Bank of the Philippines account opening facilities totaled over 5.9 million.

TSB