Amid the woeful tales of scams and online frauds, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas yesterday urged entrepreneurs to embrace digital financing, which will offer more opportunities for business expansion.
Speaking at the 4th Digital Financial Inclusion Awards (DFIA) launch, BSP Gov. Eli Remolona Jr. said the growing number of entrepreneurs who use digital finance is “proof that going digital isn’t something to fear – it’s something to embrace.”
“With the measures we’ve put in place, digital finance is becoming more secure, efficient and inclusive,” Remolona said.
“Going digital is not always easy. We hear a lot about online fraud and scams in digitalization because they tend to be dramatic events. We do not discuss boring benefits, faster transactions, better financial access, and new opportunities. This makes small business owners hesitant. While these concerns are valid, they should not hold us back,” Remolona said.
“This is why we are here — to help shift the focus to the real success stories,” Remolona said.
He added that the BSP and its partner agencies are working to make the digital landscape more secure, simpler and more accessible.
Remolona said the number of Filipinos using digital platforms for their financial transactions is increasing.
The latest BSP data showed that the value of transactions via InstaPay and PESONet has increased, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses under the BSP’s National Retail Payment System framework.
PESONet caters to high-value transactions, while InstaPay is a real-time, low-value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000.
The value of transactions done through InstaPay alone jumped by 47.8 percent to
P750.6 billion from P507.8 billion in the previous year.
This, however, was 7.3 percent lower than December’s P810.1 billion.
The volume of InstaPay transactions stood at 150.6 million, higher by 61.6 percent from 93.2 million in the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, the value of PESONet transactions climbed by 32 percent year on year to P1.05 trillion in January from P797.4 billion last year.
On a monthly basis, the January amount was 6.4 percent higher than the P989.2 billion in December 2024.
The volume of transactions that went through PESONet also rose by 20.6 percent to 9.6 million from 8 million.
Remolona stressed that the BSP wants online payments to account for 60-70 percent of the country’s total retail transaction volume by 2028.
The latest BSP data showed that digital payments made up 52.8 percent of the volume of retail transactions in 2023, a higher share than the 42.1 percent share in 2022.
Value-wise, 55.3 percent of retail transactions in 2023 were done online, up from 40.1 percent the year prior.
The BSP said the increase in digital payments was driven by the wider use of online transaction channels among people and businesses, with the coronavirus pandemic accelerating the shift.
The DFIA aims to recognize the outstanding contributions of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and microentrepreneurs advancing financial empowerment through digital innovation.
It serves as a platform to honor trailblazers of digital financial transformation. It is sponsored by Citi Foundation in partnership with the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) and supported by the BSP.
Awardees will receive cash prizes of P100,000 and laptops each to strengthen their digital transformation.
