Maya, the country’s all-in-one digital banking and money app, is making cashless transactions a lot easier in public markets nationwide with the rollout of the Paleng-QR initiative in Central Visayas, starting with Bohol province.
The Paleng-QR Ph initiative is spearheaded by the BSP and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and it aims to empower the City Government of Tagbilaran to help public market vendors and tricycle drivers accept cashless payments from any customer via the QR Ph, the country’s standard for QR payments.
“Small merchants and Filipino consumers are not only enjoying a hassle-free payment experience for their everyday transactions with Maya QR but also creating a financial footprint that allows them to access more advanced banking services offered by Maya,” said Mar Lazaro, Maya’s Head of Enterprise Business.
Since QR Ph’s launch in 2019 for person-to-person (P2P) payments and in 2021 for person-to-merchant (P2M) payments, Maya has led the charge among financial institutions in the rollout of the QR Ph national standard and now counts over 800,000 merchant touchpoints powered by QR Ph-capable Maya QR. “Basta QR Ph, pwede kami,” Lazaro added.
Building ‘digi-palengkes’ nationwide is part of Maya’s own LGUs Embracing and Accelerating Digitalization (L.E.A.D). Through this program, LGUs encourage local merchants and constituents to digitalize their transactions with Maya’s business-in-a-box payment solutions and disbursement tools.
On top of digitalizing public markets, Maya has become the growth partner of choice of Philippine businesses.
These enterprises include pharmacies, transportation, travel, retail stores, public utilities, food, hospitals, service providers, and schools.
Maya earlier launched the same initiative in Davao City’s biggest Bankerohan Public Market.
Maya is the first digital financial services platform to adopt QR Ph. More than 52 million users can enjoy a seamless experience using Maya’s consumer platforms that can send and accept P2P payments from other QR Ph-participating financial institutions.
The BSP’s QR Ph initiative is part of the overall financial services transformation roadmap of the Philippines. It aims to raise Filipinos’ trust in digital financial services, as consumers and enterprises will get used to sending and receiving cashless payments for everyday transactions.
Maya’s full support to QR PH is in line with the BSP’s thrust to increase the share of Filipino adults with a financial account from 56 percent in 2021 to 70 percent in 2023 and grow the volume of digital payments from 20 percent in 2021 to 50 percent by this year.
