CEBU: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has intensified efforts to bolster interoperability in digital payment systems, assuring consumers of further protection from fraudsters and scammers, a central bank official on Tuesday said.
Anne Michelle Andres of BSP’s payment policy and development department said there is a need for banking and financial institutions to ‘inter-operate’ for faster person-to-person transactions, bill payments, merchant payments, and salaries and wages.
In 2022, the BSP recorded 1.5 billion merchant payment transactions, about 300 million person-to-person transactions, and 45 million transactions for salaries and wages.
‘Back in 2019, people were opening transaction accounts because they wanted to save. But we saw in 2021 that the people were opening accounts for payment transactions already,’ Andres said during the Media Information Session at the BSP Cebu office.
She said the BSP is confident that it has achieved the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, with 50
percent of the total volume of retail payments now done digitally.
The BSP recorded 27.5 million e-wallet users nationwide, a four times increase from 2019, as against the 18 million traditional bank account owners in 2021, she said.
‘Regulatory innovation and market reforms played a big role in driving e-wallet adoption and financial inclusion,’ she added.
Andres said the BSP is still working hard to promote inclusivity so the masses and those lacking access to the internet and gadgets without recourse for faster but non-digital transactions will not be left behind.
‘We are still exploring ways to enhance even the off-line payments with which our partners would be able to do online transactions without the internet,’ she added.
Lawyer Paul Khristan Baylon, deputy director for consumer protection and market conduct office, assured the public of the central bank’s conciliation and mediation mechanism to address concerns of consumers against erring digital payment providers.
He said the central bank is wo
rking closely with Congress to update laws and regulations to catch up with the change in time.
Source: Philippines News Agency