PESONet, InstaPay transfers reach P5.37T in first seven months of 2022

The value of electronic fund transfers made through PESONet and InstaPay  increased by 48% in the first seven months of the year, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday showed.

The combined value of transactions made through systems hit P5.37 trillion in January to July, marking a 43% growth from the values recorded in the comparable period of 2021.

InstaPay transactions for the first seven months were recorded at P1.91 trillion, up by 37% from the comparable period in 2021. The volume of transactions hit 300 million, up 25%.

“[T]he rise in InstaPay transactions is mainly attributed to the wide use of internet banking and e-money transactions for domestic remittances, e-commerce, bills payment, and other immediate low-value payments,” the BSP said in an accompanying statement.

The central bank launched InstaPay in April 2018, an electronic fund transfer (EFT) payment system that enables individuals to wire funds across banks in real-time.

Meanwhile, PESONet was launched in 2017, enabling the government, businesses, and individuals to initiate EFTs and recurring payments in financial institutions supervised by the BSP within the same banking day.

The value of PESONet transactions in the first seven months was P3.46 trillion, up 47% from the same period in 2021. The volume of transactions climbed by 22% to 48 million.

“The increase in PESONet transactions was mainly driven by state-run pension fund disbursements facilitated by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), which began in September 2020,” the BSP said.

DBP disbursements were conducted twice a month with a disbursement volume of 1.5 million transactions, valued at P6.8 billion.

In 2020, former BSP governor and now Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno set a target to have at least half of all Philippine transactions done digitally by 2023.

Current BSP Governor Felipe Medalla has stuck to this goal, but a survey conducted by the central bank showed that only a fourth of Philippine banks are on schedule with their digitalization efforts.—AOL, GMA News