The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is optimistic that it will achieve its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap (DPTR) targets of digitalizing at least 50 percent of retail payments volume and onboarding 70 percent of Filipino adults to the formal financial system via a payment or transaction account by 2023.
“We are confident of hitting the twin goals,” said BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno as he cited recent digitalization and financial inclusion figures during the HSBC Digital Bankers Forum held recently.
In terms of volume, the share of digital payments to total financial transactions reached 20.1 percent in 2020 from 14 percent in 2019 and only 1.0 percent in 2013.
“As more Filipinos embrace the convenience of digital payments, we expect the phenomenal growth in digital financial transactions to continue in the years ahead,” according to the Governor.
Meanwhile, registered e-money accounts reached 138.8 million last year with the total number of transactions at 1.7 billion. Likewise, the number of basic deposit accounts reached seven million with PHP4.8 billion deposits in the first quarter of 2021.
In view of these, the proportion of “banked” Filipino adults have reached 53 percent in the first quarter of 2021, nearing the target of 70 percent.
“With financial digitalization, I am confident that we will achieve the stronger post-COVID economy that we envision sooner rather than later,” the Governor added. (BSP)
