IN response to the call of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for supervised financial institutions to extend relief measures to their clients and borrowers affected by the COVID-19 enhanced community quarantine, local banks and eMoney providers yesterday announced payment extensions and waived transfer payments.
Banco de Oro Unibank, the country’s biggest lender, said it is providing a 60-day payment extension for qualified credit card, auto, home, SME and personal loan customers with due dates of up to April 15, 2020.
Other universal banks like Bank of the Philippine Islands, Eastwest Banking Corp., Unionbank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Security Bank also gave payment extensions of 30 days for their consumer loans clients with due dates from March 15 to April 15, 2020.
Metropolitan Banking Corp., aside from extending clients’ payment due dates for 30 days, also announced it is pledging P200 million for COVID-19 crisis response.
Local and international savings banks with work operations in the country also extended payment periods for 1 month.
These include PSBank, Chinabank Savings, Taiwan-based CTBC Bank and digital bank CIMB Bank.
These banks are also waiving fees for its electronic and mobile banking platforms to discourage clients from going out of their homes.
The BSP also stressed that operating hours of PhilPaSS will still be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to settle all retail transactions which include transactions via ATMs, automated clearing houses (PESONet and InstaPay), checks and urgent fund transfers requested by banks for corporates, as well as trading with the BSP Financial Market Operations Sub-Sector.
The BSP also suspended the auction on its Term Deposit Facility “to ensure adequate short-term peso liquidity conditions in the financial system and support the smooth flow of funding to businesses and households as enhanced quarantine measures are implemented in Luzon.”
Meanwhile, the electronic money (e-money) industry supports the call of the BSP to shift from cash to digital, where possible.
“ The eMoney industry is fully committed to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through digital financial services,” said Orlando Vea, chairman of the Philippine eMoney Association (PeMA) and CEO and Founder of PayMaya Philippines.
PeMA member companies include PayMaya, GCash, GrabPay Philippines, Nationlink Network, and Omnipay.
FDFC, the fintech firm behind BillEase, also said it is extending installment payment dues for free and will waive fees to those who have already received their payment notification prior to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) announcement.
The extension is available to qualified customers, or those who have good standing, with installment dues from March 17, 2020 to April 12, 2020.
