The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has again called on banks and non-banks to accept the national ID – in its physical or digital form – as sufficient verification process to onboard a new depositor, borrower or client.
“The more people we onboard, the more valuable the national ID becomes,” BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said.
He added, “we’re building a Philippines where your identity is no longer a barrier, but a bridge.”
The BSP on July 28 held a forum on the importance and usefulness of the national ID.
Remolona said the national ID will help expand financial inclusion and the banking network. “As its usefulness grows, so does the social good,” he said.
In the forum, one of the key recommendations was to expand the use of Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) National ID Authentication Services (NIDAS). NIDAS enables real-time identity verification using biometric and demographic data across plastic cards, printed paper, and digital formats.
Besides PSA, the forum was attended by officials from the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the NationalPrivacy Commission, the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs, the World Bank, Korea Credit Information Services, and BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFIs).
The BSP has been encouraging all BSFIs to prioritize the use of the national ID for years, and to utilize the National ID Check to authenticate the Philippine identification card (PhilID).
There have been several memos released by the BSP reminding banks and non-banks to accept all formats of the national ID as an official government-issued identification document of a person, and a valid and primary proof of identity, subject to authentication.
