PhilPaSS transactions jump 51% to P312.6 T last year

MANILA, Philippines - The total value of financial transactions that passed through the central bank’s Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS) surged 51.3 percent last year on the back of robust remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The value of financial transactions handled by PhilPaSS reached P312.61 trillion last year or P106 trillion more than the P206.61 trillion handled by the system in 2010.

Likewise, the volume of transactions jumped 28.5 percent to 1.177 trillion from 916,304 in 2010.

PhilPaSS is an online and real-time gross settlement payment system administered by the central bank to facilitate payment transactions between banks. The large value handled by the system represents money in circulation that is being repeatedly processed by banks.

The BSP said the increase in the number and volume of transactions stemmed mainly from overseas Filipino remittances coursed through the PhilPaSS-Remit system, interbank lending or payments, Intraday Liquidity Facility (ILF) availments or repayments, sales and purchases of government securities via Delivery versus Payment (DvP), e-DvP transactions, and cash withdrawal from banks.

Statistics showed that OFW remittances transactions processed and settled through the PhilPaSS Remit system more than tripled to P12.627 trillion last year from only P4 trillion in 2010.