Real-time electronic fund transfer gains more ground among banks

Instapay, Pesonet

MANILA, Philippines — More banks are now into real-time electronic fund transfers in support of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) move to establish a safe, efficient, affordable, and reliable electronic retail payments system in the country.

Latest data from the BSP showed the number of InstaPay participants that allow real-time electronic fund transfers worth P50,000 and below has more than doubled to 47 from only 20 since the automated clearing house was launched in April last year.

InstaPay is an electronic fund transfer service that allows customers to transfer peso funds almost instantly between accounts of participating BSP-supervised banks and non-bank e-money issuers in the Philippines. The service is available 24x7, all year round.

Banks that can both send and receive real-time fund transfers include Asia United Bank, Bank of Commerce, BDO, China Bank,China Bank Savings, Dungganon Bank, EastWest Bank, Equicom Savings Bank, G-Exchange, Land Bank of the Philippines, Malayan Bank Savings and Mortgage Bank, Metropolian Bank & Trust Co, Philippine Bank of Communication, Philippine National Bank, PNB Savings Bank, Philippine Savings Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., RCBC Savings Bank, Robinsons Bank, Security Bank, Sun Savings Bank, Union Bank, and UCPB.

On the other hand, receiving institutions include Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands, CTBC Bank, government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines, Isla Bank, OmniPay, Partner Rural Bank (Cotabato), PayMaya Philippines, Philippine Business Bank, Philippine Trust Co., Philippine Veterans Bank, Sterling Bank of Asia, UCPB Savings Bank, and Yuanta Savings Bank Philippines.

The Philippine Payments Management Inc. (PPMI) has urged participating institutions to send and receive real-time fund transfers.

The interoperability of InstaPay conveniently allows users seamless transactions between accounts maintained in any of the participating institutions.

On the other hand, 42 banks are already participating in the first ACH called Philippine EFT System and Operations Network (PESONet) launched last November 2017 to facilitate batch electronic fund transfer from one account to one or several accounts maintained in different financial institutions.

Both automated clearing houses were launched as part of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS) aimed at increasing the share of electronic retail payments to at least 20 percent by 2020 from the current level of one percent.