TRANSACTIONS made through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) InstaPay and PESONet gateways rose further at end-September amid the continued adoption of digital payments.
The value of transactions done through the BSP’s automated clearing houses InstaPay and PESONet climbed by 30.1% to P9.24 trillion at end-September from P7.1 trillion in the same period a year prior.
In terms of volume, the clearing houses recorded 638 million transactions from January to September, 40.5% higher than 454 million seen in the comparable year-ago period.
More Filipinos have been using online banking and tapping these facilities for fund transfers, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.
“The continued strong double-digit year-on-year growth in InstaPay and PESONet transactions may have to do with the accelerated adoption by the banking public of these digital fund transfer facilities, as encouraged by banks and regulators,” Mr. Ricafort said.
Broken down, the value of transactions done via PESONet climbed by 23.9% to P5.69 trillion as of September from P4.59 trillion recorded in the same period in 2022, based on BSP data.
The volume of transactions coursed through this payment gateway stood at 67.8 million transactions in the first nine months of the year, up by 8.3% from the 62.6 million seen the previous year.
Meanwhile, the value of transactions made through InstaPay surged by 42% to P3.55 trillion at end-September from P2.5 trillion in the comparable year-ago period.
The volume of InstaPay transactions climbed by 45.6% to over 571 million transactions during the period from 392 million at end-September 2022.
PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses under the central bank’s National Retail Payment System (NRPS), which was rolled out in December 2015 to promote a safe, efficient, affordable, inclusive and reliable retail payments system.
PESONet caters to high-value transactions and is considered as an electronic alternative to paper-based checks.
On the other hand, InstaPay is a real-time electronic fund transfer facility for low value transactions of up to P50,000.
The increase in PESONet and InstaPay transactions is expected to help the BSP achieve its twin goals to have 50% of retail payments done digitally and 70% of adult Filipinos as part of the formal financial system by the end of this year. — Keisha B. Ta-asan