PLDT aids BSP in e-payment inter-operability

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is working closely with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to address lack of interoperability between mobile money services in a bid to boost the country’s electronic payment transactions.

 Orlando Vea, president of PLDT’s Smart eMoney Inc., said the company’s PayMaya enables consumers to immediately shop online without the need for extensive application forms or submission of numerous documents required for other card services.

 The World Bank’s Infrastructure Challenges in the Philippines report released earlier this year tagged the lack of interoperability between Smart Money and Globe Telecom’s GCash as a major impediment in e-payments adoption in the country.

 “We continue to work with the BSP as well as our partner financial institutions in addressing this challenge. As the innovations arm of PLDT and Smart, together with Voyager Innovations, we are addressing this the digital way,” Vea said.

 According to him, all mobile phone subscribers could send money via Smart Padala regardless of telecom provider.

 “Anyone can use PayMaya, regardless of mobile number. Anyone in the Philippines can now also send money via Smart Padala to any mobile number. Our fintech products such as Lendr and LockByMobile can also be adopted as a solution by any bank or telco,” he added.

 The e-Payment Index study of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has cited the country’s young growing population active in Internet and social media as a positive driver that can further improve ePayments adoption.   

“This is the main market profile of PayMaya and most of our digital apps. We call this the frontier market, a segment of the population with lower income but posed for high adoption because they are digital savvy,” Vea said.  

The Philippines only ranked 18th out of 21 economies in the region in terms of readiness for e-payments in the APEC e-Payment Readiness Index: Ecosystem Assessment and Status Report published recently by the Australian APEC Study Center at RMIT University and TRPC.

 “With a relatively long history in mobile payment services and a growing e-commerce market, the Philippines is primed to be a hotbed for e-payments. Yet, the APEC E-payment Index shows the Philippines is still underdeveloped relative to its potential,” the report said.

The Philippines scored ahead of only Peru, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea. Additionally, the study acknowledged high mobile penetration as a positive factor but cited improving ICT infrastructure security and access to formal financial systems as needing improvement.