Philippine central bank achieves digital retail payments target

As of 2023, 52.8% of monthly retail payments are made digitally.

The Philippines has hit its target of digitalising half of its retail payments– just in time to hit the central bank’s target.

As of 2023, 52.8% of total monthly retail payments are now digital, according to a report by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

E-payments made up the bulk of the total transactions, at 40.1% of all payments.

The main contributors to the rise in e-payments were merchant payments, accounting for 64.9% of monthly digital payments volume. Meanwhile, person-to-person transfers made up 19.3% of all e-payments; and business-to-business supplier payments accounted for 6.1%.

BSP governor Eli M. Remolona said that the central bank “takes great pride” in achieving its goal.

“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,” Governor Remolona said in a statement posted on the BSP website.

Recently, the BSP also rolled out an Intraday Settlement Facility service to prevent timing mismatches in the settlement of payments and further support a paperless process.