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MANILA, Philippines - The number of transactions settled and processed through the central bank’s payments and settlements system climbed in the third quarter from year-ago levels, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

In a report, the BSP said the volume of transactions that passed through the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS) increased 1.4 percent to 339,543 in the third quarter from 334,963 in the same period last year.

However, the value of transactions fell 6.6 percent to P83.5 trillion from P89.4 trillion a year ago.

PhilPaSS is the BSP’s gross settlement system wherein processing and final settlement of fund transfer happens in real time. The system handles high-value payments between banks through their deposit accounts maintained with the BSP.

Quarter-on-quarter, the volume of transactions slid 4.5 percent to 339,543 in the third quarter from 355,585 in the second quarter.

“The decline in the volume of transactions was due to the quarter-on-quarter decrease in the following: sales and purchases of government securities via delivery-versus-payment; BSP Treasury Department transactions; interbank sale and purchase of foreign currency (US dollar) via payment-versus-payment; PhilPaSS-REMIT transactions; and interbank transactions,” the BSP said.

At the same time, the value of transactions also declined 6.9 percent to P83.5 trillion from P89.6 trillion.

“The decrease in the total transaction value was due to the contraction in the following accounts: tertiary transactions on government securities via expanded delivery-versus-payment; sales and purchases of government securities via delivery-versus-payment; BSP Treasury Department transactions; and interbank sale and purchase of foreign currency (US dollar) via payment-versus-payment,” the BSP noted.

Due to the decrease in the volume of transactions from the previous quarter, the central bank said revenues from PhilPaSS operations went down 8.8 percent to P38.4 million in the third quarter from P42.1 million in the second quarter.

Moreover, the total revenues also declined 9.1 percent on a year-on-year basis.

PhilPaSS is used for the settlement of OFW remittances, fund transfers and loan transactions between banks, sale and purchase of government securities, and foreign currency dealings.