PHL to meet 50% digital payments goal in ’23

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the country is poised to attain its digital payments target for the year.

B ased on the data, the share of monthly digital payments to total monthly retail payments volume in the Philippines rose to 42.1 percent in 2022 from 30.3 percent in 2021. The digital payments target for this year is 50 percent.

“ The latest results show that we are steering in the right direction as we move closer to our goal of converting at least half of total retail payments volume into digital form by the end of 2023 under the BSP Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap,” former BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said in a statement over the weekend.

B SP said the top contributors for the increase are merchant payments, person-to-person (P2P) transfers, and salaries and wage payments.

Data showed merchant payments and P2P transfers were further digitalized by 35.6 percent and 91.2 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, BSP said it is also noteworthy that salaries and wage payments grew by 41.1 per - cent, from just 32 million transactions in 2021.

The numbers tell us that the deliberate reforms and initiatives we have been undertaking are responsive to the shifting needs of the public towards more efficient payments services. Since the pandemic, which broadened digital payments adoption and acceptance, the upward trajectory of digital payment usage has been sustained. We need to carry on to maintain this trend, focusing on the overall valueadding experience of using digital payments,” Medalla said.

T hese results are aligned with the latest BSP Financial Inclusion Survey Report, which found a significant increase in ownership of transaction accounts, majority of which are e-money accounts, and that more of these accounts are now being used for payments.