MANILA – An executive of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) is hopeful for the sustained rise of availments on the financial institution’s online and mobile banking platforms as people realize its advantage especially during this pandemic.
In a reply to questions from PNA, UCPB First Vice President and Marketing Group Head Charina Balanquit said their account holders “can use InstaPay not just for account-to-account transfers but also for loading their digital wallets.”
“We expect clients to have more compelling reasons to finally shift to online/mobile banking because aside from real cost-savings on their part, these online platforms provide them with a safer and more convenient option in doing their banking transactions especially during this pandemic,” she said.
InstaPay is one of the two real-time electronic payment systems to date under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) national retail payment system (NRPS). The other one is PESONet.
InstaPay allows bank account holders to transfer funds up to PHP50,000 per transaction without limit, while PESONet is a credit payment scheme for business-to-business and people-to-business transactions, such as crediting of salaries to employees’ accounts.
BSP earlier said the volume of transactions that used InstaPay reached about 8.86 million last April, higher by about 509,151 percent compared to the 1,740 transactions when it was launched in April 2018.
PESONet transactions last April reached 1.08 million from about 330,000 when it was launched in November 2017.
The BSP is pushing for wider use of digital payments and its target for these payment modes to account for about 50 percent of total transactions by 2023 got a boost during the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in mainland Luzon from the middle of March until the end of April.
This level of movement restriction was extended until the end of May for the National Capital Region.
Community quarantines were also implemented by local governments in the Visayas and Mindanao to help address the rise of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, which in turn further increased the need for mobile and online payment transactions.
In line with the central bank’s bid to further ease consumers’ burden on paying transaction fees when using online and mobile platforms, banks have waived the payments for these services for a certain period.
UCPB will waive the fees for InstaPay and PESONet transactions until the end-2020.
During the ECQ, the bank registered a 317-percent jump in the volume of outbound InstaPay transactions compared to the figure last January, while the value increased by 182 percent during the same period.
During the same time, inbound InstaPay transactions rose by 77 percent in volume and 76 percent in value relative to the January 2020 figures.
In the first half of 2020, the volume of outbound InstaPay transactions increased by 280 percent, and the value by 186 percent.
The volume of outbound PESONet transactions during the ECQ rose by 203 percent while value inched up by 177 percent relative to the figures in the first month this year.
Inbound PESONet transactions during the same time increased by 545 percent in volume and 59 percent by value.
In the first six months this year, the volume of outbound PESONet transactions grew by 238 percent and by 146 percent in terms of value.
Inbound PESONet transactions climbed by 244 percent in volume and 92.5 percent by value. (PNA)
