Digital payments share in retail transactions rose in 2022 —BSP

The share of monthly digital payments in total monthly retail transactions saw a year-on-year increase in 2022, according to the latest e-payments data of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

In its 2022 Status of Digital Payments report, the BSP said that the share in terms of volume of digital payments over total retail payments grew to 42.1% from 30.3% in 2021.

“The latest results show that we are steering in the right direction as we move closer to our goal of converting at least half of total retail payments volume into digital form by the end of 2023 under the BSP Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap,” said BSP Governor Felipe Medalla.

The central bank said that the increase in digital payments’ share in overall retail transactions was mainly driven by person-to-business (P2B) merchant payments, with more than 1.5 billion transactions representing 73.7% of the total 2.044 billion digital transactions.

This was followed by person-to-person (P2P) payments and business- to-person (B2P) salaries and wage payments with share to total digital payments volume at 14.7% and 2.2%, respectively.

The government was the most cash-lite among the three payor types as 95.9% of its payments are done digitally.

Payments made by persons followed with 55.5% of transactions done in digital form while payments made by businesses were 9.8% digital.

The BSP said the results are aligned with the latest BSP Financial Inclusion Survey Report, which found a significant increase in ownership of transaction accounts, majority of which are e-money accounts, and that more of these accounts are now being used for payments.

“The numbers tell us that the deliberate reforms and initiatives we have been undertaking are responsive to the shifting needs of the public towards more efficient payments services. Since the pandemic, which broadened digital payments adoption and acceptance, the upward trajectory of digital payment usage has been sustained. We need to carry on to maintain this trend, focusing on the overall value-adding experience of using digital payments,” said Medalla. —KG, GMA Integrated News