BSP, banks to study cuts in e-payment fees

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will continue to work with banks on measures to lower or waive transaction fees for small e-payments to make financial digitalization more inclusive.

“I am sure that the Bangko Sentral and our partners in the banking system will be able to find a cost-sharing system that excludes payments from fees, provided they are made below a certain number of transactions,” BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said at the annual reception for the banking community hosted by the BSP at its Manila head office last Friday, 24 February.

“One way to make digitalization more inclusive is to make small transactions free of charge so that low-income households can be encouraged to use digital payments. If the value of the transaction is small and the charge is 15 pesos, for example, that fee is quite large relative to the transaction,” the Governor explained.

Reducing the cost of e-payments is in line with the BSP’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, which aims to convert half of retail payments volume into digital form and to onboard 70 percent of Filipino adults onto the formal financial system within this year.