BSP: New pricing scheme for fund transfers out soon

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is set to release this week an exposure draft outlining a new pricing mechanism aimed at lowering fees for electronic fund transfers, according to BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan.

On the sidelines of HSBC’s 150th anniversary party, Tangonan said he cleared the draft regulation earlier on Tuesday after ongoing talks with industry stakeholders.

The draft aims to address barriers that hinder more Filipinos from adopting digital payments.

“We’ve been talking to the industry. They have ideas,” he told The STAR.

“We have support from most BSFIs (BSP-supervised financial institutions), but we’ll see how we can accommodate into the final regulation the concerns of those who may find it unworkable,” he said.

While Tangonan declined to give full details pending publication of the draft, he said the pricing mechanism would apply across all transaction sizes and is designed to be straightforward and easy to implement.

“(The fees will be) low but may not be zero. But we leave it to competitive forces,” Tangonan said. “The exposure draft is not very heavy on math, just a simple principle.”

The BSP has been pushing for zero or lower fees on fund transfers since 2023, as part of its broader push to accelerate digital payments adoption and promote financial inclusion.

Tangonan said that high transaction costs have long been cited as a key deterrent, especially among low-income users who rely on small-value transfers.

“People say it’s cheap and say it’s just P25, but that’s from our perspective. When someone’s sending P150, a P25 fee is a lot. They’ll just use cash instead,” he said.

Lowering fees, he noted, is critical in converting non-users into users and helping the country expand its digital payments base.

Tangonan also cited cybersecurity concerns as another obstacle.

“Consumers are afraid to lose money. Cybersecurity, fraud – all that. AFASA needs to be properly implemented,” he said, referring to the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act.

The draft issuance is expected to be published within the week, after which it will be open for public comments before the BSP finalizes the regulation.

Latest data from the central bank showed that the value of electronic fund transfers coursed through the PESONet and InstaPay jumped by 38.8 percent to P5.29 trillion as of end-March from P3.81 trillion in the same period a year ago.

The volume of transactions done via InstaPay and PESONet surged by 71.5 percent to P530.5 million from P309.3 million a year prior.

The central bank wants online payments to make up 60 to 70 percent of the country’s total retail transaction volume by 2028, in line with the Philippine Development Plan.