BAGUIO CITY (PIA) – – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas affirmed an uptrend in the use of digital payments in the country and as it reminded the people that ensuring safety in the use of digital financial services is a shared responsibility.
The BSP North Luzon Regional Office officials, in a Kapihan media forum here on Tuesday (March 7) reported an increasing trend in the share of digital total payments volume in the country, wherein from 10 percent in 2018, it rose to 14% in 2019, to 20.1% in 2020 and to 30.2% in 2021.
In 2020 alone, e – wallet accounts among Filipinos already reached 138 million with around 1.7 billion transactions.
Bank Officer V of the BSPO NLRO Maureen Franco presenting the data on digital payments in the Philippines and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas initiatives on ensuring a better online financial system for the country. (CCD/PIA CAR)
Leading the panelists for the media forum to promote digital payments and cyber hygiene are BSP NLRO Regional Director Noel Neil Malimban, Area Director Madelyn Lerma Viernes, Payment Policy and Development Department Bank Officer V Maureen Franco and Bank Officer V Marian Patosa.
On the benefits of digital payments, they explained that it provides cost savings, increase economic activity in the country, provides market inclusion and expansion and enhances risk management.
Digital payment is also beneficial to small merchants/businesses or micro, small and medium enterprises at it provides them an opportunity to better manage their financial transactions, establish a formal financial system, enhance their financial profile and gain better credit worthiness.
The BSP NLRO stressed that while digital payment provides many benefits for its users, it is equally important that users must know their shared responsibility to ensure their safety on the use of digital financial services and to safeguard cyber hygiene.
In ensuring digital financial security, the BSP shared the following tips: do not to entertain strange or suspicious messages; form a strong password and ensure exclusive knowledge of it; use two – step verification; review transaction history and report suspicious one, and enable alert notifications.
Malimban called for the people’s support in moving forward the use of digital payments in the country as the BSP continues to work to ensure a more efficient and more secured digital financial services in the country.
“Digital payment is not the future, it is the present. In fact, we encounter this every day. Let’s think about what we are improving. We understand the challenges, we have sufficient documentation on that though we are gathering more data, but we assure you, the use of digital payment is safe”, Malimban stressed. **JDP/CCD-PIA CAR