PhilPass fees down 9%

MANILA, Philippines - Revenues of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from its payments and settlements system fell in the fourth quarter due to a decline in transactions.

In a report, the central bank said transaction fees derived from the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPass) slid nine percent to P34.4 million in December from P37.8 million in September last year.

This was blamed to a four percent drop in the volume of transactions to 334,909 during the period from 349,670.

 “The decline in the number of transactions was due to the quarter-on-quarter decrease in the... interbank sale and purchase of foreign currency..., cash department transactions, and repurchase, reverse repurchase, and Special Deposit Account maturities transactions,” the BSP said.

Moreover the central bank said the lower volume during the period could be traced the discontinuation of the Electronic Fund Transfer Instruction System as a payment-processing system since Oct. 1 last year.

PhilPass is a gross settlement system that processes and transfers funds in real time. The system takes care of high-value payments between banks through their accounts with the BSP.

Uses of the system include the settlement of overseas Filipinos’ remittances, fund transfers and loan transaction between banks, sale and purchase of government securities, and even foreign exchange-denominated transactions.

The BSP report also showed the value of transactions went down eight percent to P75.5 trillion in the fourth quarter from P82.2 trillion in the third quarter.

 “The overall decrease in the total transaction value was due to the quarter-on-quarter decline in the... repurchase, reverse repurchase, and SDA maturities transactions, interbank transactions, and interbank sale and purchase of foreign currency,” the central bank said.

Year-on-year, the BSP’s earnings from the PhilPass transactions in the fourth quarter were four percent higher than the P33.2 million recorded in the same period in 2013.

This was driven by a three percent increase in the volume of transactions despite a seven-percent decline in the value of the deals.