BSP launches new digital payment facility

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Payments Management Inc. (PPMI) yesterday launched a new digital payment channel as part of continuing efforts to digitalize the country’s retail payments landscape.

BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said Bills Pay Ph would take the central bank closer to its goals of digitalizing at least 50 percent of total retail payments and financially, including at least 70 percent of Filipino adults in the country by 2023.

“Through our continued collaboration with PPMI, we expect to broaden the reach of the benefits of digitalization for more Filipinos, be it individuals or businesses, through more convenient, affordable, efficient, and responsive digital payment services,” Medalla said.

For his part, BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said the launch of Bills Pay Ph would help achieve the twin goals under the central bank’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.

“These unprecedented times have accelerated the growth of global digital economies by driving various economic sectors toward broader digital transformation,” Tangonan said.

As of end-2021, the share of electronic payment to total retail transactions increased to 30.3 percent from 20.1 percent in 2020, while the number of banked Filipino adults almost doubled to 56 percent last year from 29 percent in 2019.

Although 43.4 percent of Filipinos made bills payment transactions last year, Tangonan lamented that only eight percent were made digitally.

According to Tangonan, the facility will hasten the digitalization of one of the most common payment use cases in the country.

Bills Pay Ph is an interoperable facility that aims to improve the efficiency of bills payment by unifying the various bills payment networks and allowing consumers to settle their bills using their respective transaction accounts even if they do not maintain such reports with the payment service provider of their billers.

Tangonan added that the facility is a powerful tool for both consumers and businesses as it facilitates digital transactions between accounts from different payment service providers (PSPs).