Clients of some of the largest banks in the country will be able to use the services of two major digital payment channels.
Those are free until the end of the third quarter. Meanwhile, some financial institutions have decided to suspend those fees for the remainder of the year.
Thus said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Benjamin Diokno welcomed this move by bankers in response to a demand for relief measures from the regulator. It would help the general public and expand the use of digital payment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Group of Membership Will Extend the Waiver
According to the BSP chief, Union Bank of the Philippines, Asia United Bank, Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, Security Bank, Sterling Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and HSBC are the members of the Philippine Payments Management Inc.
They will extend their waiver of fees for PESONet and InstaPay channels until Dec. 31, 2020.
“The rest of the membership will extend the waiver of fees until September 30, 2020,” Diokno said.
It refers to BDO Unibank, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Bank of Philippine Islands, RCBC, and China Bank. After that, Philippine National Bank, Bank of Commerce, Robinsons Bank, Philippine Savings Bank, Paymaya, GXI, and China Bank Savings.
“The BSP is actively pushing for the use of digital payments. It is as the part of a safe and convenient payment system,” Diokno said.
“My goal is to have half of all financial transactions—in volume and value—in digital form by the end of my term, which is midyear 2023,” he explained. “With the quantum jump in the use of digital payments during the lockdown, I’m confident that this goal would be achieved sooner.”
The fee waiver is applicable to retail users. Meanwhile, corporate clients will see their fees reduced from P150 to P50 per transaction from July 1, 2020, onward.
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