Real time digital payments targeted by mid-April — BSP

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is launching another automated clearing house (ACH) to enable real time payments by the middle of April as it pursues a safe, efficient, and reliable digital or electronic payment system in the country.

BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said the central bank is introducing a second ACH to be called InstaPay to enable 24/7 low value electronic fund transfers below P50,000 as part of the more holistic digital financial ecosystem with the implementation of the National Retail Payment System (NRPS).

“The Instapay platform is scheduled to be rolled out mid of April which is within the target timeline. So far, there are no problems encountered that might cause delays in implementation,” she said.

Last Nov. 8, the BSP launched the first ACH allowing batch electronic fund transfer under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) called Philippine EFT System and Operations Network (PESONet).

The first ACH facilitates fund transfer from one account to one or several accounts maintained in different financial institutions.

PESONet provides an electronic alternative to the still widely used paper-based check system. Through PESONet, businesses, the government, and individuals will be able to conveniently initiate electronic fund transfers and recurring payments from the sender’s accounts maintained in BSP supervised financial institution (BSFIs), such as banks and other non-bank electronic money issuers, to corresponding recipient accounts in other BSFIs.

Digitizing retail payments is critical in the Philippines considering that 99 percent of payment transactions per month are done in cash, with businesses and individuals making only one percent and 0.3 percent electronic payments, respectively, according to a study done by the Better Than Cash Alliance. 

The NRPS was launched in December 2015 to increase the use of electronic payments and to shift to cash-lite society from cash-heavy society. It aims to increase electronic retail payment transactions to 20 percent by 2020 from the current one percent.

“We are pursuing significant inroads to build the infrastructure for a more holistic digital financial ecosystem with the implementation of the NRPS,” Fonacier said.

The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) has already established the Philippine Payments Management Inc. to serve as a payments management body for the NRPS.