Smart to roll out new payment service

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), through its wireless arm Smart Communications Inc., is set to roll out a payment service using electronic load currency catering to self-employed individuals.

PLDT and Smart president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said the new service, called BayadLoad or “pay with load,” could be used to pay contributions to social security, state pension and health insurance.

 â€œThe power of BayadLoad lies on its pervasiveness because it is available through our nationwide retail network. We will be using that power to roll out a payment service for monthly premium payments to social security, state pension and health insurance,” Nazareno stressed.

 He pointed out that the service would primarily cater to self-employed individuals who make up about half of the labor force in the Philippines .

 â€œThis service can make life easier for self-employed individuals. They won’t have to spend time and money traveling to the concerned government offices and lining up for long hours to pay their social security contributions and health insurance premiums. They can pay with a few clicks on their phones whenever they like, wherever they are,” he added.

 The PLDT Group, together with power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), has developed a special electronic load used only for paying prepaid electricity accounts that is now being made available via the retailer network of Smart.

 Unlike the airtime load wallet, Nazareno said the BayadLoad wallet has a distribution margin less than half of the usual trade costs or down to five to six percent that could be absorbed by company receiving the payments.

 He said Bayadload that uses Land Bank of the Philippines as settlement bank has been approved by the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). 

“I believe that this is so far the only electronic load currency that got a regulatory stamp of approval.  BayadLoad is fungible as it has a one-is-to-one monetary value backed with equivalent physical cash with our settlement bank,” he added.

 Nazareno said BayadLoad does not have any expiry, not subject to unlimited call and text promotions, could not be used for calling and texting and cannot be withdrawn in cash unlike airtime load. 

He pointed out that the PLDT Group had used mobile money to help victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda that battered provinces in the Visayas region last Nov. 8.

 In partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a cash-for-work program was launched in Tacloban City wherein beneficiaries were paid P1,400 per week via Landbank to sweep streets, clear debris and clean up the drainage.

 â€œThe first group of program beneficiaries received their weekly payout amounting to P1,400  via new ATM cards issued to them by Landbank. They also received a text message that their pay had been credited to their cash card via a cell phone courtesy of Smart which was linked to their card and came preloaded with 30 days’ worth of free SMS,” he said.

 The pilot phase of the UNDP program would cover about 5,000 beneficiaries in different parts of Central Philippines that were hit by Yolanda that would eventually increase to about 50,000 people.

 He revealed that the UNDP cash transfer program is being tweaked and would now be coursed through electronic vouchers instead of cash.

 â€œWe are making available BayadLoad for this deployment, which was recently approved by the regulator. This is purely electronic money, thus, minimizing cost on transporting, securing and handling physical cash while addressing inflationary effect of too much cash in circulation,” he said.