More financial institutions to lower transfer fees, BSP says

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects more financial institutions to lower or waive their person-to-person digital transfer fees to meet new rules that took effect on Saturday (July 4) and will issue warnings to those who fail to comply.

E-wallet giant GCash on July 4 cut its InstaPay transfer fee to P10 from P15.

Maya Group — who owns both Maya Philippines, Inc., which is an electronic money issuer (EMI), remittance and transfer company, operator of payment system, and virtual asset services provider, as well as digital bank Maya Bank, Inc. — will also slash its InstaPay fee to P10 from P15 by July 6, while PESONet transfers will remain free.

These come as Bank of the Philippine Islands permanently waived InstaPay and PESONet charges for person-to-person transactions starting July 1.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. on July 4 also began offering 30 free InstaPay transfers per month for transactions with a minimum of P100 via its RCBC Pulz app, and unlimited free InstaPay transfers via RCBC Diskartech subject to a daily transaction limit of P499,999. However, its PESONet transfer fee remains at P10.

These financial institutions’ moves are in compliance with BSP Circular 1238 issued on June 17, mandating reasonable, fair, and market-based pricing for individual digital transactions.

The circular said fees charged for person-to-person e-payments across banks, e-wallet operators, and other payment service providers or off-us transactions should not be materially different from fees within the same institution or on-us transfers, and that any difference in pricing should only be the switch cost, or the fee charged by a clearing switch operator to process these transfers.

Financial institutions are also expected to support their fees with an analysis of the actual costs incurred to provide e-payment products and services.

“We expect more banks to follow within the next two days,” BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. told reporters on the sidelines of an event on Friday, adding that lower fees would improve the country’s payments system.

“If there are many members, it’s better. So, the entry fee should be low. If it can be zero, that’s good.”

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto E. Tangonan likewise told reporters at the same event that payment service providers, banks, and EMIs were expected to comply with the circular by July 4.

He added that the central bank will issue warnings to supervised institutions that will fail to comply with the new rules.

“It’s fairer if you don’t make one transaction pay for another. So, if you don’t want to charge a fee, you allocate it to all transactions. Don’t forget the second part. The outcome there is that more consumers will use digital payments, because one of the barriers for digital payments is high fees. Payments is a two-sided market. It’s like phones… You have to be in the same network,” Mr. Tangonan said.

He also clarified that the circular covers both InstaPay and PESONet as the latter, while catering to high-value transactions through batch processing, is also used for person-to-person transactions.

Mr. Tangonan added that the next step to improving the payments system would be to equip micro businesses with the capacity to process digital transactions requiring just one identification form.

“When you increase consumer usage, you have to increase the number of merchants that can use it. So, we have to solve that. For low-risk merchants, usually micro, like sari-sari stores or beauty shops, bakeries, national ID will suffice or any form of ID. So, more merchants will encourage more consumers.”

The BSP wants digital payments to make up 60%-70% of the total volume of retail payments by 2028 in line with the Philippine Development Plan.

In 2024, online payments made up 57.4% of the volume and 59% of the value of the country’s total monthly retail transactions, according to the BSP’s 2024 Status of Digital Payments in the Philippines report. These are up from 52.8% and 55.3%, respectively, in 2023.

DIGITAL BANKS
Meanwhile, Mr. Remolona said the BSP still has no decision on digital banks’ license applications but added that they will announce the new players one by one.

He said the central bank is consolidating the different application process and requirements for foreign digital banks looking to enter the local market and for digital banks that acquired rural banks.

“It’s two kinds. There are digital banks that bought rural banks. It’s a different process since there are new [players]. But there is also a process where a digital bank enters and wants to be a digital bank. It’s a different process. There are different capital requirements. So, we’re trying to reconcile the two processes,” Mr. Remolona said.

The central bank earlier said it received three applications for new digital banking licenses before the Nov. 30, 2025 deadline.

The BSP had opened four slots for new digital banking licenses, which could be both new players and existing banks seeking to convert to digital operations, after it lifted its three-year freeze on digital bank licensing in January 2025. It approved a new indefinite moratorium on licensing in September.

Six digital banks are licensed by the central bank to operate in the Philippines, namely, Tonik Digital Bank, Inc.; GoTyme Bank Corp.; Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, Inc.; UNObank, Inc.; and UnionDigital Bank, Inc. — A.M.C. Sy