Margie Markland

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking to mandate zero fees for digital payments and electronic fund transfers in the Philippines by 2025.

Photo Courtesy of Philstar/Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

This move was the latest in the BSP's efforts to further increase the volume of digital payment transactions and promote a “cash-lite” economy to offer Filipinos a “safe, efficient, and inclusive digital payments system.”

A draft circular was released by BSP on October 1 to seek comments from various stakeholders to make online fund transfers free for personal transactions and payments to micro, small, and medium enterprises.

BSP-supervised banks and other financial institutions have until October 11 to submit their feedback.

Under the draft, the bank said no extra payment should be collected from person-to-person digital transfers if done either as a remittance or lending of funds for “personal, family, or household purposes and not conducted in the ordinary course of businesses.”

It further noted that sending money via electronic channels is also considered a personal transaction if the number of transfers does not regularly exceed 10 times a week.

However, fees will continue to be charged for transactions outside of these thresholds, but the BSP encourages them to adopt “reasonable and fair market-based pricing models.”

Once approved by the policymaking Monetary Board, payment service providers must comply with the new rules starting April 1, 2025.

The moratorium on the fee increases for InstaPay and PESONet transactions will also be lifted once providers submit proof of compliance with the new policy.

Figures from the BSP showed current InstaPay fees for individual transactions range from as low as P8 to as high as P75, while PESONet transfers could cost between P8 and P600 for consumers.

The central bank earlier reported a significant increase in digital payments in the country, with 52.8% of all retail payments being done electronically in 2023, compared with just 42.1% in 2022.

It said pandemic lockdowns spurred the need for contactless transactions and accelerated the shift to digital payments.