Pasig city market vendors are now incentivized to accept e-payments under Paleng-QR Ph Plus launched on Friday in ceremonies led by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe M. Medalla, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, and Pasig Representative Roman Romulo.
Initial estimates indicate that over 2,000 vendors at Pasig City Mega Market have joined the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program. Pasig City is the first local government unit in the National Capital Region and the sixth in the Philippines to launch the program following the cities of Baguio, Davao, Tagbilaran, Naga, and Lapu-Lapu.
Spearheaded by the BSP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Paleng-QR Ph Plus encourages the use of QR (quick response) technology as a convenient, safe, and efficient payment solution.
QR brings the benefits of digital technology even to small vendors or tricycles, allowing them, among others, to accept e-payments. By simply scanning a merchant’s QR code with their cellphones, customers can pay for purchases or services electronically, quickly, and conveniently.
Also present at the program launch were Monetary Board Members Peter Favila and Eli Remolona, BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, DILG City Director Visitacion Martinez, Pasig City Vice Mayor Robert Vincent Jude Jaworkski, Jr., City Councilor Simon Gerard Tantoco (Committee Chairperson on Trade, Commerce, and Industry), and City Councilor Marion Rosalio Martires (Committee Chairperson on Market).
Pasig City also partnered with different financial service providers to aid in transaction account opening and printing of QR codes.
The Pasig City Government and the BSP also held financial literacy sessions for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The BSP will continue to support the local government units in the implementation of the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program to boost the growth of the digital ecosystem and transaction account ownership in the country.
Paleng-QR Ph Plus is in line with the central bank’s efforts to transform half of the volume of retail payments in the country to digital form and onboard 70 percent of Filipino adults onto the formal financial system by this year under the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023.
The BSP also conducted its Piso Caravan, on the sidelines of the Paleng-QR Ph Plus launch, to enable Pasigueños to exchange unfit banknotes and coins with fresh bills or digital cash in support of the BSP’s Clean Note and Coin Policy and the Coin Recirculation Program.
Unfit banknotes are dirty, soiled, limp, stained, or have faded print and obvious writings.
Meanwhile, unfit coins are those with corrosion or markings.
The BSP Greater Manila Regional Office (GMRO), in coordination with the BSP Financial Inclusion Office and the Land Bank of the Philippines facilitated the cash exchange, both digital and physical.
