PH central bank optimistic it’ll achieve digital payment targets

The country aimed to have 50% of all retail payments be digital by end-2023.

The Philippine central bank has expressed optimism that it had reached its target of half of retail payment transactions being digital by end-2023.

In a press release published on its website, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the sustained rise of digital payment technologies will facilitate delivery of financial services to the unbanked as well as the micro-, small-, and medium-enterprises (SMEs).

Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan noted the exponential growth of the sector. He particularly credited the BSP’s 2020-2023 Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap for the “significant strides in digital payments.”

"In 2013, we started with a mere one percent share of digital to total retail payments. Fast forward to 2022, and we saw a whopping 42.1% share in digital retail payments transactions,” Tangonan shared.

“I believe we reached our 50-percent target by the end of 2023,” he added.

Amongst initiatives that the BSP have launched include the Paleng QR Ph Plus program; and the Bills Pay PH. The latter enables users to pay their bills whether or not they have an account with their billers’ payment service provider.

The central bank also said that it is charting the next phase of the country’s digital journey under the 2024-2026 Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.