Even after three years of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) persuading banks to have zero-rate or free online transfers for small value transactions of P1,000 and below, only eight banks are implementing this service.
Based on BSP data, Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) and CIMB Bank Philippines are the only universal and commercial banks that have waived transfer fees, however these are still time-bound and not permanent.
Landbank has removed the fees for online fund transfers below P1,000 via InstaPay and PESONet but only for the first three transactions per day via its mobile banking app and IAccess, the bank’s online retail banking channel.
It has also reduced the interbank fund transfers of more than P1,000 to a fixed transaction fee of P15 for individual InstaPay and P17 for PESONet.
CIMB Bank, a subsidiary of CIMB Group of Malaysia, also offer free InstaPay and PESONet service up to five transactions per day, with a maximum amount of P50,000, the same as Landbank.
Metrobank has extended its InstaPay fee waiver for transactions worth P1,000 and below but only until September 30, 2025. The Ty-controlled bank first implemented its zero-rate promo in July 2023 via its Metrobank app and it continues to run the waiver as needed.
Among private banks, aside from Metrobank and CIMB Bank, the Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands and the Aboitiz-owned Union Bank of the Philippines have each complied with BSP’s request to offer free online transfers for transactions P1,000 and below in the past. But so far, both local banks have yet to re-open its previous zero-rate perks.
Meanwhile, digital banks Tonik Digital Bank and UnionDigital Bank likewise provide free fund transfers. But in the case of UnionDigital, it is only free until December this year, after which it will charge P10 for each transaction.
GoTyme Bank, another digital bank, also offers zero-rate online transfers. The bank charges P8 for every other transaction while the next one is free.
Maya Bank, on the other hand, charges a P15 fee for individual InstaPay – the highest among digital banks – but its PESONet and InstaPay for corporate clients are free.
Among the smaller banks, thrift bank BPI Direct BanKo and rural bank SeaBank Philippines have also waived fees for online transfers.
P8 to P25 transfer fees for all other banks
Based on the BSP’s summary of transfer fees using digital channels, Asia United Bank offers the lowest rate at P8 for both InstaPay and PESONet. The rest charges P10 to P25 per transaction.
Thrift banks’ transfer fees range from P10 to P20 per transaction while rural banks can go from P8 to P15.
The rates for non-bank electronic money issuers (EMI) or e-wallets are as low as P7.50 to as high as P75 for some money services. Popular e-wallets Maya and Gcash charge P15 per transaction via InstaPay.
BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. has been urging all banks — especially big banks — to waive transfer fees on small online transactions.
In the absence of a formal payments framework or other regulations that will compel banks to remove or reduce fees on small transactions, all the BSP could do is make an appeal using moral suasion.
In September last year, the BSP issued a draft circular for zero fees on person-to-person electronic fund transfer (EFT) transactions and micro-merchant payments to encourage more retail payments to migrate to digital.
The BSP has proposed to eliminate fees on EFTs for personal transactions up to a specified threshold on the number of transactions, and on payments for micro-merchants.
Once the circular is approved, it effectively cancels the existing moratorium on the increase of InstaPay and PESONet fees which was imposed in 2021.
At the moment, there are 81 InstaPay participating BSP supervised financial institutions, of which 22 are big banks, 21 are thrift banks, 18 are rural banks, and five are digital banks. There are also 25 EMIs using InstaPay.
InstaPay is a real-time, low-value digital payments facility that substitutes for cash transactions. PESONet is a batch electronic fund transfer service as an alternative for checks and recurring payments.
