Philippine banks to roll out electronic fund transfer by end-November

The government aims to boost cashless transactions from 1% to 20% by 2020.

The Philippine central bank has ordered lenders in the country to make fund transfer services available through electronic channels by November 30 in line with its goal of boosting the level of cashless transactions from 1% to at least 20% by 2020. 

Also read: E-wallets to snap up 6% of Philippine payments by 2022

Banks offering electronic financial and payment services should make fund transfer via the country’s two automated clearing houses (ACH), PESONet (Philippine EFT System and Operations Network) and InstaPay.

Also read: Nine Philippine banks onboard electronic fund transfer system InstaPay

Banks are required to notify the central bank within 10 banking days from the day it has made the two ACHs available on its e-channels, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor Chuchi Fonacier told local media.

The PESONet involves the fund transfer from one account (payer) to one or several accounts (payees) maintained in different banks.

InstaPay, on the other hand, is a 24/7 service launched in April that allows customers to transfer peso funds of up to PHP50,000 in real-time between accounts of participating banks.

Nine Philippine banks including Asia United Bank Corp. (AUB), Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO), China Bank Savings Inc., China Banking Corp., Equicom Savings Banks Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank), Philippine Savings Bank (PSB), Security Bank Corp., and Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) have already onboarded the electronic money transfer InstaPay with 18 more lenders expected to do real-time fund transfer by October, according to local media. 

The two ACHs were launched as part of the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) framework. The Philippine Payments Management Inc (PPMI) is tasked to monitor the banks’ compliance with the NRPS framework.