BSP rolls out new payment facility

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has rolled out a new payment facility in line with efforts to achieve a cash-lite economy by shifting half of the total retail transactions in the country to digital channels over the next two years.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno led the launching of the QR Ph person-to-merchant (P2M) payment facility to simplify digital payments made by customers to merchants.

The facility that uses the quick response (QR) technology allows customers to transact with a wider range of businesses, including purchases of goods and services in department stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, hardware stores and restaurants.

Diokno said digitalizing merchant payments through QR Ph P2M is expected to have a far-reaching positive impact as it empowers small economic actors like micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to realize greater opportunities for growth.

It benefits both customers and merchants through faster, easier, and cheaper payment options with greater convenience and security.

“With today’s event, we are well on our way to becoming a cash-lite society. This milestone is testament to our commitment to overcome the challenges of broadening digital transformation in the country in our pursuit of the delivery of universal access to safe, affordable and convenient digital payment services for all Filipinos,” Diokno said.

The full launch means customers who have accounts with AllBank, AUB, Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank, China Bank, Landbank, RCBC, Starpay, Union Bank, and USSC Money Services Inc. could now pay using QR Ph to more than 20,000 participating merchants in over 30,000 locations and whose accounts are with AllBank, AUB, BDO, Cebuana Lhuillier Rural Bank, Metrobank, PayMaya, RCBC, Starpay, Union Bank and UMSI.

The BSP expects more payment service providers and merchants to be onboarded to the platform.

“Because of its low cost and ease of use, QR Ph P2M can enable small unbanked vendors, such as sari-sari store owners and tricycle drivers, to participate in the digital payments ecosystem and allow them to build financial profiles which may eventually facilitate their access to other financial products and services that can help them grow and enhance the resiliency of their businesses,” Diokno said.

PayMaya Philippines president Shailesh Baidwan said the company is excited to be at the forefront of the rollout of the QR Ph P2M payments.

“It’s a boost, especially for our enterprise customers, as they can start accepting payments from more customers using just their QR Ph-enabled by PayMaya. We support the BSP in this thrust as this is a major step towards building a stronger payment ecosystem across businesses, consumers, and government,” Baidwan said.

The rollout of the P2M builds on the Philippines’ successful adoption of QR Ph person-to-person (P2P) payments, its first use case for said technology.

Based on the latest report of the BSP on the status of digital payments in the Philippines for 2020, over 70 percent of retail payments are made to merchants, majority of which are MSMEs, but only a quarter of these payments are made digitally.

“We now have more tools to onboard merchants, especially MSMEs, or even informal merchants, and make it easier for them to accept digital payments, thereby widening the range of consumers and businesses who can have access to and enjoy the convenience of using digital payments,” BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said.

The BSP through the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap aims to convert 50 percent of total retail transactions to digital channels and increase the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.

Latest data showed the share of digital payments to total retail transactions increased to 20.1 percent in 2020 from 14 percent in 2019 in terms of volume and to 26.8 percent from 24 percent in terms of value.