Batch settlements doubled in PESONet fund transfer

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has doubled the batch settlements of electronic fund transfer platform PESONet as it continues to ramp up efforts to transform the country into a cash-lite from a cash-heavy economy.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the Monetary Board issued Resolution 102 last Thursday approving the guidelines on the settlement of electronic payments under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) framework.

“The policy retains existing provisions applicable to instant retail payments while incorporating new provisions relevant to batch settlement of e-payments. This new set of guidelines is expected to strengthen the credit and settlement risk management for batch settlement of electronic payments,” Diokno said.

The guidelines were issued to support the implementation of the PESONet Multiple Batch Settlement. This latest digital payments initiative increases the frequency of PESONet batch settlement to two cycles in a banking day, thereby allowing faster clearing and settlement of both personal and business transactions.

The framework also provides the responsibilities and minimum requirements to be adhered to by BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) participating in the automated clearing houses established under the NRPS, including PESONet and InstaPay as well as the respective clearing switch operators.

Diokno explained that the settlement scheme agreed upon by the clearing participants forms an integral part of the comprehensive risk management for electronic payment services.

“In line with this, the BSP requires BSFIs participating in an automated clearing house for electronic payments to ensure that this automated clearing house provides certainty of settlement of the multilateral clearing obligations of the clearing participants,” Diokno added.

Key provisions of the new guidelines include requiring clearing participants to maintain a separate demand deposit account per settlement mechanism type.

The guidelines also stipulate that clearing switch operators implementing batch settlement of e-payments shall enable clearing participants to effectively monitor the sufficiency of their respective demand deposit account balances for every settlement cycle.

The issuance of the guidelines governing the different settlement mechanisms under the NRPS framework is crucial in the proper implementation of Republic Act 11127 or the National Payment Systems Act.

The BSP is set to launch the multiple batch settlement of the PESONet tomorrow.

Under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, Diokno has committed to convert 50 percent of total retail transactions in the country to electronic channels and increase the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 50 percent by 2023.

With the pandemic serving as catalyst, the share of digital payments to total retail transactions increased to 30 percent in 2021 from 20.1 percent in 2020 and a mere one percent in 2013.

Likewise, the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts jumped to 53 percent as of the first quarter of 2021 from 29 percent in 2019.