Government officials and private sector leaders said during an online forum on Wednesday, October 28, that shifting to digital payments will bring economic growth and create a more inclusive Philippines.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has unveiled its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, which charts the central bank’s current initiatives and strategy in advancing a digital payments ecosystem.
Se. Sonny Angara, the bill’s author, took note of the growth of digital payments in the Philippines at a rate of 27% to 30%, which is higher than the 25% average of emerging Asian countries, but is still just one percent by volume of the estimated 2.5 billion payments made per month.
The Covid-19 contagion is proving to be a major factor in the digital transformation of the local transport sector with the government now pushing for contactless and cashless solution for various modes of mass transportation in the country.
The Visa survey also showed 73 percent of Filipino consumers said they are most likely to increase or sustain their current online shopping, similar to global shoppers (72 percent).
PayMaya said it has disbursed more than P1.4 billion in financial aid to at least 120,000 citizen beneficiaries nationwide under the social amelioration programs of various national government agencies and LGUs since the start of Covid-19 community quarantines last March.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that transactions using PesoNet and InstaPay visibly increased compared before the lockdown due to restrictions in movement of people outside of their houses.
The Phillipines will no doubt be a fascinating growth market for e-commerce and will leverage unique technological, business, and policy solutions to build and increase trust into the e-commerce ecosystem.
As a sign of growing digitalization of financial services in the Philippines, 88% are receptive to a semi-digital payments solution that would allow them to initially confirm the transaction online and then subsequently fulfil the transaction at a physical location.