With PESONet and InstaPay’s fast growth due to lockdowns during the pandemic, the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has designated the two major digital fund transfer systems as Prominently Important Payment Systems (PIPS).
BSP closely supervises and monitors PIPS pursuant to the National Payment Systems Act to protect the economy and the public.
PIPS refers to payment systems that could potentially cause adverse economic impacts or undermine the confidence of the public in the national payment system or in the circulation of money.
PESONet, operated by the Philippine Clearing House, is an account to account fund transfer that supports bulk, recurring and non-time sensitive payment transactions.
InstaPay, which is handled by BancNet, Inc. is a low-value, real-time payment that allows person-to-person, and retail digital transactions instead of cash through e-wallets.
“The designation of PESONet and InstaPay as PIPS is considered timely, as these payment systems will facilitate the launch of other use cases for digital transactions, such as interoperable bills payments and direct debits,” said BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla.
“This further promotes consumer welfare as we continue making progress toward the BSP’s objective of reaching 50% digital payments by 2023,” added Medalla.
According to the latest data from the Philippine central bank, the share of digital payments in the total volume of retail transactions in the country rose to 30.3% in 2021 compared to just 20.1% a year earlier.
