The adoption of digital payments in the Philippines has spiked. As per the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), 40% of retail transactions in 2022 were completed cashless, which is higher than the 30.3% the year before.
BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said that the increase in digital payments on retail transactions was thanks to the surge in e-wallet accounts. If it weren’t for e-wallets, the growth would have been “much, much smaller,” Medalla said.
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The 30.3% of 2021 was also higher than the year after that, which was only 20.1%. This is due to Filipinos adopting digitalization due to the restrictions brought on by the pandemic.
BSP managed to achieve its 20% target in 2020 under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS), which led to the launch of electronic fund transfers via InstaPay and PESONet.
The central bank, under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, aims to turn half of the total retail transactions into electronic channels and up the number of financial inclusion of Filipino adults to 70% by 2023.
It is said that from 29% in 2019, the total number of adults with bank accounts almost doubled to 56% by 2021.
The BSP recently launched the Open Finance PH Pilot with the help of the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the World Bank, with the goal to promote financial inclusion and collaboration if financial institutions.