PayMaya customers reach 28 million

MANILA, Philippines — Digital financial services firm PayMaya continued to grow its customer base across its platforms this year, driven by the shift to cashless payments brought by the “new normal.”

In a statement, PayMaya said it is ending the year with more than 28 million customers across its platforms, who can conveniently pay, add money, cash out or remit in over 200,000 touchpoints nationwide.

PayMaya said it has expanded its Smart Padala network to over 33,000 agent touchpoints nationwide, allowing even those in the farthest reaches of the country to conduct transactions such as remittances, bills payments, mobile prepaid loading and even QR payments.

The company said cashless transactions made by Filipinos through the PayMaya app have consistently registered triple-digit growth rates throughout 2020, peaking sometime around May at the height of the enhanced community quarantine to register over 1,000 percent year-on-year growth compared to the same month in 2019.

“The top use cases among PayMaya users in 2020 were sending money to friends and family, paying bills, and purchasing mobile prepaid load, all of which have formed part of their everyday financial transactions,”PayMaya said.

Meanwhile, PayMaya said it was also tapped by the government to help disburse financial aid through the various COVID-19 mitigating programs of the government, with over P4.5 billion in aid disbursed to PayMaya accounts of hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries nationwide.

“These measures include the Social Amelioration Program under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program of the Social Security System (SSS), as well as loan programs launched by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture,” PayMaya said.

It said that the various cities in Metro Manila have also tapped its platforms to disburse allowances and aid to their respective constituents to aid those affected by the lockdown since March.

“Now that many Filipinos have their own PayMaya accounts, cashless payment technologies have become an essential part of the government’s arsenal toward economic recovery and building the better normal in the next few years,” PayMaya president Shailesh Baidwan said.

Apart from receiving government aid via their accounts, PayMaya said consumers can also safely and seamlessly transact with government by paying their fees and dues to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, SSS, PAG-IBIG Fund, Philippine Statistics Authority, Department of Foreign Affairs, Land Transportation Office, Professional Regulation Commission, Bureau of Customs, and Department of Trade and Industry, among others, using their PayMaya app.

To date, over 60 government units both in the national and local levels have tapped PayMaya as their partner of choice in offering cashless payments via their online and branch channels.

“The growth of PayMaya’s volume related to government payment acceptance is projected to reach by 1,200 percent growth by year-end as compared to 2019,” it added.

Moreover, PayMaya reported an over 1,500 percent increase in the number of new merchants onboarded and using various PayMaya digital payment acceptance solutions in November, as many merchants have shifted their focus to delivering products and services online amid the pandemic.

“Apps such as PayMaya Negosyo and tools such as Payment Links, Digital QR, as well as the PayMaya Checkout payment gateway allow these businesses—many of them Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs)—to quickly offer cashless payment acceptance and even generate new income streams from services such as bills payment and mobile prepaid reloading,”PayMaya said.