Taking part in The Asset’s annual 16th Philippine Summit, Benjamin Diokno, governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), shared during his keynote address how the Philippines was continuing on its path to improving the efficiency of financial transactions in the country by improving items like digital payment streams and infrastructure.

“We aim to transform the country into a cash-light society where at least 70% of Philippine adults have transaction accounts achieved largely through digital services, and where at least half of financial transactions are done electronically,” Diokno explains during The Asset’s virtual event. “Data shows that we are on track to these twin goals.”

Benjamin Diokno, governor at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, speaks during The Asset 16th Philippine Summit

Hoping to meet these digital payment goals by 2023, the BSP earlier this week officially launched its OR Ph P2M, a channel that allows merchants in the country to accept e-payments in places like department stores and restaurants. In November 2019, the BSP launched the QR Ph for person-to-person payments focusing on remittances, a service that has experienced significant growth amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“We don’t let this virus get in the way of our vision to have a cash-light society rather than a cash-heavy society,” Diokno points out. “We are now 20% digitalized, and our target is that half of all transactions will be in digital form by 2023. We will get there sooner rather than later.”

The volume of the Philippines’ two payment infrastructure networks – PESONet and InstaPay – have increased substantially over the past several months, with PESONet up 164% during the first half of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020 and InstaPay transactions up 223% during the same period.

The discussion around the Philippines continues next week on October 19 2021 at 4:30pm (HKT) with the second session of The Asset’s annual 16th Philippine Summit that features a keynote address by Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III, secretary of finance of the Republic of the Philippines.

To sign up for this session, entitled “Reviving paths to recovery”, please click here.