More Pinoys to have bank accounts

CEBU, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said yesterday it sees financial inclusion improving further this year as it eased regulations in bank account ownership and as digital payments started to expand.

These significant improvements, the central bank said, will be achieved “in light of recent regulations that are expected to boost account ownership and acceptance of digital payments.”

Last February 2018, the BSP implemented the basic deposit account framework which meets the need of the unbanked for a low-cost, no-frills deposit account which they can open even without standard identification documents.

Last December 2017, the BSP also approved the branch-lite regulation which gives banks the flexibility to determine the appropriate size and model of a banking office for a specific area or locality based on market needs.

These innovations made under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS), the central bank noted in a statement Friday.

With the continuous growth of banking offices nationwide, the number of unbanked local government units declined to 554 (33.9 percent of the total) in 2017 from 582 (35.6 percent) in 2016, representing a 1.7 percentage points decrease in unbanked areas, according to BSP.

The BSP's 2017 State of Financial Inclusion in the Philippines report also noted that the number of deposit accounts in the country increased by 6.8 percent from 53.5 million in 2016 to 57.1 million in 2017.

“As of June 2018, 155 banks (out of 581 head offices) have tapped 1,751 branch-lite units to expand physical outreach in 738 local government units (LGUs), of which 151 LGUs were being served by branch-lite alone,” the BSP further noted.

The central bank underscored the opportunities presented by the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) in facilitating key multi-partite agreements such as the promotion of financial literacy in schools and access to finance by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Building on the gains, the BSP is pushing for the continued promotion of digitalization to expand access and usage of financial services, as well as strategic partnerships anchored on the NSFI to fully develop the financing ecosystem for agriculture and MSME financing.

“The BSP will also continue its collaboration and partnerships on financial education and consumer protection,” the bank regulator said. — JMD