E-money transactions surged 36% to P1.48 trillion in 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The value of electronic money transactions in the Philippines surged by 36.2 percent to P1.48 trillion in 2019  from P1.09 trillion in 2018 and the amount is expected to rise further as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) promotes digitalization amid the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.

Vicente de Villa, managing director of the central bank’s financial technology sub-sector, said the jump in the value of transactions observed last year is more pronounced considering the slower 13.3 percent growth recorded in 2018.

“This accelerating growth in e-money transactions represents a positive development to the BSP’s active effort in promoting e-payments,” de Villa said.

Data showed the value of e-money inflows surged by 36.4 percent to P745.23 billion in 2019  from P546.45 billion in 2018 as volume surged by 50.1 percent to 178.39 million from 118.85 million.

On the other hand, the value of e-money outflows likewise jumped by 36.1 percent to P740.13 billion from P543.74 billion as volume went up by 10.8 percent to 449.23 million from 405.5 million.

De Villa said the volume and value of e-money transactions are likely to spike this year as more Filipinos shifted to electronic payments amid the pandemic.

“Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has driven the shift to online payment, remittance, and other digital platforms, we expect to maintain this momentum in 2020 and beyond,” de Villa said.

Given the restrictions during the lockdown, he explained a number of BSP-supervised financial institutions have been operating on limited capacity.

“Recognizing this limitation, one of the relief measures granted early on was the relaxation of submission of reports that fall due within the months of March to June,” he said.

To date, the BSP has issued more than 50 EMI licenses including 31 banks and 23 non-banks.

During the lockdown, de Villa said the BSP approved three new non-bank EMIs including Paynamics Technologies Inc., UPay Digital Technologies, and WIBS PHP Inc.

Non-bank EMIs include i-Remit, Tagcash Ltd Inc., MarCoPay Inc., giant Grab’s GPay Network Philippines. SpeedyPay, OmniPay, Metrobank Card, G-Xchange, Alipay Philippines, Infoserve, Lulu-Phils Internatonal Exchange, PayMaya Philippines, True Money Philippines, DCPay Philippines, Wisecard e-Money Philippines, Starpay, Zybi Tech, Airpay Technologies Philippines, Togetech  and Ecashpay Asia.

The BSP launched the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) in December 2015, paving the way for the introduction of clearing houses including the PESONet and InstaPay to raise the level of digital payments to 20 percent by 2020 from only one percent in 2013 as part of the shift to a cash-lite from a cash-heavy economy.

A study by the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) showed the volume of e-payments usage in the Philippines grew to 10 percent in 2018 from one percent in 2013, while the value of e-payments rose to 20 percent from eight percent.