BSP to launch digital payments clearing house in January

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said individual consumers would be covered by the batch electronic fund transfer (EFT) credit automated clearing house (ACH) starting next month as it pursues greater use of electronic payments by shifting to cash-lite society from cash-heavy society.

BSP deputy director Raymond Estioko said banks and the clearing house operator are now developing their respective web and mobile applications for the Philippine EFT System and Operations Network (PESONet) as part of the National Retail Payment System (NRPS).

“Hopefully by January individuals for the common people would be able to experience and see PESONet being offered first by the banks,” he said.

Estioko, who is also the project head of the BSP’s NRPS, said several banks are now ready to offer the service to individual customers

“There are several banks which are now ready to offer the service to the public,” he added.

BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. led the launch of the PESONet in November to facilitate fund transfer from one account to one or several accounts maintained in different financial institutions.

PESONet is one of the ACHs prioritized for implementation given its potential to be an efficient channel for government and private business collections and disbursement. PESONet provides an electronic alternative to the still widely used paper-based check system.

Estioko explained the initial launch of the PESONet only covers corporate transactions.

Through PESONet, businesses, the government, and individuals will be able to conveniently initiate electronic fund transfers and recurring payments from the sender’s accounts maintained in BSP supervised financial institution (BSFIs), such as banks and other non-bank electronic money issuers, to corresponding recipient accounts in other BSFIs.

With the ACH, funds could be made available to the recipient accounts within the same banking day or immediately upon clearing.

Payees receive the funds transferred in full free of charge resulting in greater transparency and to help clients determine which EFT products offer the best value for their money.

Estioko said a second ACH called InstaPay would be launched toward the end of the first quarter of 2018 to enable 24/7 low value electronic fund transfers.

The BSP launched the NRPS in December 2015 to provide a safe, efficient, and reliable digital or electronic payment system in the country.

Digitizing retail payments is critical in the Philippines considering that 99 percent of payment transactions per month are done in cash, with businesses and individuals making only one percent and 0.3 percent electronic payments, respectively, according to a study conducted by the Better Than Cash Alliance.

The NRSP aims to increase electronic retail payment transactions to 20 percent by 2020 from the current one percent.