Digital transactions rise in Philippines amid strict lockdown restrictions
Xinhua
01 Jun 2021, 19:55 GMT+10
MANILA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Digital transactions in the Philippines continued to rise due to the central bank's efforts to encourage electronic payment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Tuesday.
The BSP said the combined transactions through PESONet and InstaPay, two automated clearing houses under the National Retail Payment System, in April this year were higher by 276 percent in volume and 127 percent in value than the figures recorded during the same month in 2020.
PESONet is a batch electronic fund transfer (EFT) that can be considered an electronic alternative to the paper-based check system. InstaPay is a real-time and low-value EFT for transactions amounting to up to 50,000 pesos (roughly 1,047 U.S. dollars) and is useful for e-commerce.