PhiPaSS transactions up in Q1

MANILA, Philippines – Volume of transaction that passed through the central bank’s payments and settlements system increased 3.7 percent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of last year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The number of transactions at the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS) reached 372,734 in the first quarter from 359,562 in the last quarter of 2015.

PhilPaSS is a gross settlement system that processes and transfers funds in real time. The system takes care of high-value payments between banks through their accounts with the BSP.

Uses of the system include the settlement of overseas Filipinos’ remittances, fund transfers and loan transaction between banks, sale and purchase of government securities, and even foreign exchange-denominated transactions.

The central bank traced the uptick in volume to the increase in trading of government securities via expanded delivery-versus-payment (eDvp) (127.5 percent), and interbank transactions (2.7 percent).

 These was partially negated by the three percent decline in transactions on overseas Filipino remittances coursed through the REMIT system.

Similarly, the total value of transactions increased 15.4 percent to P76.4 trillion in the first quarter from the previous quarter’s level of P66.2 trillion.

The upswing was due to the 75.8 percent jump in reverse repurchase (RRP) eTrading, the 14.4 percent rise in special deposit account (SDA) placements with the BSP Treasury Department, and the 14.1 percent increase in interbank transactions.

 On a year-on-year basis, the volume and value of PhilPaSS transactions increased 9.5 percent and nine percent, respectively.

The total revenue derived from PhilPaSS operations went up 10.2 percent to P35.2 million in the first quarter due mainly to higher volume of transactions, particularly interbank and third party systems.