PESONet, InstaPay transactions up 37% to P9.9 trillion in 2022

MANILA, Philippines — The value of electronic fund transfers coursed through the PESONet and InstaPay surged by 37.3 percent to P9.94 trillion last year from P7.24 trillion in 2021 as more Filipinos embrace digitalization, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The value of PESONet transactions surged by 41.2 percent to P6.41 trillion from P4.54 trillion, while the amount of InstaPay transactions jumped by 30.7 percent to P3.53 trillion from P2.7 trillion.

In terms of transaction volume, PESONet and InstaPay booked a combined increase of 21 percent to 633.46 million last year from 523.59 million in 2021.

The volume of PESONet transactions went up by 17.9 percent to 84.8 million from 71.93 million.

Likewise, the volume of InstaPay transactions increased by 21.5 percent to 548.65 million from 451.67 million amid the wide use of internet banking and e-money transactions for domestic remittances, e-commerce, bills payment and other immediate low-value payments.

PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses, launched under the BSP’s National Retail Payment System (NRPS) that was rolled out in December 2015 to promote a safe, efficient, affordable, inclusive and reliable retail payment system.

PESONet enables high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to the paper-based check system. InstaPay is a real-time, low value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is most useful for remittances and e-commerce.

Under its Digital Payment Transformation Roadmap, the BSP aims to shift 50 percent of total retail transactions to electronic channels and onboard at least 70 percent of Filipino adults to the financial system through the ownership and use of a transaction account by 2023.

With the pandemic serving as catalyst, the share of digital payments to total retail transactions increased to 30.3 percent in 2021 from 20.1 percent in 2020.

Prior to the launch of the NRPS, the share of electronic payments to total retail transactions stood at only one percent in 2013.

Likewise, the number of banked Filipino adults almost doubled to 56 percent in 2021 from 29 percent in 2019.