THE VALUE and volume of electronic fund transfers that went through PESONet and InstaPay rose as of end-January from a year earlier, according to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The combined value of transactions done via the BSP’s automated clearing houses InstaPay and PESONet climbed by 36% to P955 billion as of January from the P702 billion in the same period in 2022.
In terms of volume, cumulative transactions coursed through InstaPay and PESONet grew by 26% to 58 million as of end-January from 46 million in the comparable year-ago period.
“This is good news. This may mean that more and more people are using these BSP services,” Union Bank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said in a Viber message.
“With the increase in usage, it may also mean the increase of people within the current system which is in line with the goal including more and more people in the financial system,” he added.
Broken down, the value of PESONet transactions rose by 35.3% to P607.86 billion as of last month’s end from P449.35 billion at end-January 2022.
The volume of transactions coursed through the payment gateway stood at 7.37 million, 14.1% higher from the 6.46 million seen in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the value of transactions done through InstaPay grew by 37.3% year on year to P347.96 billion at end-January from P253.35 billion in the comparable year-ago period.
The volume of InstaPay transactions also went up by 27.7% to 51.55 million from 40.37 million in 2022.
PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses launched in December 2015 under the central bank’s National Retail Payment System.
PESONet caters to high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to paper-based checks.
On the other hand, InstaPay is a real-time, low-value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is most useful for remittances and e-commerce.
The BSP wants 50% of total retail transactions done digitally and to bring at least 70% of Filipino adults into the financial system by this year under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.
The share of digital payments in the total volume of retail transactions in the country rose to 30.3% in 2021 from 20.1% in 2020 as consumers and businesses used more online channels amid mobility restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the value of payments done online represented 44.1% of total retail transactions in 2021, higher than the 26.8% share a year prior. — Keisha B. Ta-asan