Digital payments account over 50% of retail payment transactions in 2023 — BSP

The Philippines hit its goal of having digital payments account for half of the total monthly retail payments in 2023 on the back of higher e-payments to merchants, a report released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday showed.

According to the 2023 Report on E-Payments Measurement, digital payments accounted for 52.8% of retail payment transactions in 2023, higher than its 50% goal under the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2018-2023, and 42.1% in the previous year.

Out of 5 billion monthly transactions, over 2.6 billion transactions were successfully converted into digital form, reflecting a 28.1% growth from the previous year which the central bank attributed to the widespread adoption of online merchant transactions, person-to-person remittances, and supplier payments made by businesses.

“We take pride in this achievement as proof that our pursuit of a cash-lite economy has consistently been progressing,” BSP governor Eli Remolona Jr. said in an accompanying statement.

“We owe this to our citizens who are the foremost beneficiaries of a safe, efficient, and inclusive digital payments system. As we serve their payment needs and deepen financial inclusion, we are ready to bring digital finance to new heights,” he added.

Merchant payments were the primary driver of the increase in digital payments with a 128% year-on-year growth to 1.701 billion or 64.9% of the total volume share. Card payments were digitalized to 60.3%, while the QR Ph person-to-merchant transactions hit 58.6 million or P54.9 billion.

In terms of value, digital payments accounted for $110.544 billion or 55.3% of the total retail transactions — person-to-X (P2X) accounted for $64.958 billion, business to X (B2X) with $37.043 billion, and government to X (G2X) with $8.543 billion.

Moving forward, the BSP said it will continue to advance digital payments and enable local businesses and consumers to become more active contributors to economic growth.

“We should not rest on our laurels. Achieving the target is not the end goal. What we would like to see are lives being transformed by our policies,” Remolona said.

“When overseas Filipinos conveniently send remittances at faster and cheaper rates; when businesses, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises, accept e-payments and transact with suppliers and billers digitally; and when every Juan and Maria’s preferred mode of payment is digital — these represent the fulfillment of BSP’s vision of a safe, efficient, reliable, and inclusive payment system,” he added.

Remolona’s predecessor, former governor and now Monetary Board member Benjamin Diokno in 2020 said he wants to have digital payments account for half of all financial transactions in terms of volume and value by mid-2023. —RF, GMA Integrated News