Digital bank transfers as of July surged to P5.7T

Digital bank transfers made through the PESONet and Instapay systems surged by 43 percent to a combined P5.7 trillion from January to July this year amid wider adoption of digital payments for household purposes and government disbursements.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement the number of transactions involved also jumped by 24 percent to at least 348 million.

PESONet, which enables high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to the paper-based check system, saw the value of transactions rev up by 47 percent to P3.46 trillion.

“The increase in PESONet transactions was mainly driven by state-run pension fund disbursements facilitated by the Development Bank of the Philippines, which began in September 2020,” the BSP said.

InstaPay caters to transactions of up to P50,000 each, and is suitable for purposes like person-to-person remittances and e-commerce payments.

InstaPay saw transactions balloon by 37 percent to P1.91 trillion. The volume expanded by 25 percent to more than 300 million.

“These reported increases in PESONet and InstaPay support the BSP’s Digital Payment Transformation Roadmap,” the BSP said.

The BSP’s goal is to see at least 50 percent of the total volume of retail payments done digitally, and to onboard at least 70 percent of Filipino adults to the financial system through the ownership and use of a transaction account—both by 2023.