PhilPaSS transactions up 10% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - The total value of financial transactions that passed through the central bank’s Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS) posted a double digit growth of 10.1 percent in the first quarter of the 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 P78.4 trillion from January to March this year or P7.2 trillion more than the P71.2 trillion handled by the system in same period last year.

The BSP reported that the volume of transactions handled by the payments system jumped 26.9 percent to 344,49 in the first quarter of the year from 290,343 in the same quarter last year.

“On a year-on-year basis, the value and volume of transactions grew by 10.1 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively,” the BSP said in the latest issue of its Report on Economic and Financial Developments.

Quarter-on-quarter, the volume of transaction inched up by 0.6 percent from P77.9 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year due to the expansion in the following accounts: deposits from the BSP Cash Department (42.2 percent), Core Financial Accounting System or cFAS transactions (30.5 percent), sales and purchases of government securities via delivery versus payment (28.3 percent), Megalink/Bancnet transactions (20.8 percent), sales and purchases of foreign currency (14.3 percent), and revenue collections via Electronic Funds Transfer Statem or EFTIS (11.1 percent).

 In first quarter of 2012, the total number of PhilPaSS transactions increased by 10.1 percent from 312,921 in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to the increase in the following: deposits from the BSP Cash Department (51.9 percent); sales and purchases of government securities via DvP (25.2 percent); sales and purchases of foreign currency (24.8 percent); Megalink/Bancnet transactions (22.1 percent); revenue collections via EFTIS (10.9 percent); cFAS transactions (9.4 percent); and interbank call loan (IBCL) transactions (7.1 percent).

As a result of the increase in the volume of PhilPass transactions and banks’ request for EFTIS user registration or reinstallation, the total revenues derived from PhilPaSS operations jumped 25.3 percent to P46 million in the first quarter from the same quarter last year.

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. It is part of the advocacy of the BSP to help Filipinos abroad and their beneficiaries by providing a safer, faster, and cheaper means of remittance.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. earlier said the central bank would continue to work with Congress towards the passage of a viable Payment Systems Act.

He said the proposed law would define and make official the oversight of the national payments and settlement system.