THE VALUE of transactions done via InstaPay and PESONet jumped by 37.3% year on year as of end-April, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
Transactions coursed through the two automated clearing houses rose to P5.22 trillion from P3.8 trillion in the same period a year ago.
The combined volume of transactions done via InstaPay and PESONet also surged by 69.7% year on year to 420.4 million at end-April from 247.8 million.
Broken down, the value of PESONet transactions rose by 32.5% to P3.12 trillion as of end-April from P2.36 trillion in the same year-ago period.
The volume of transactions that went through the payment gateway also went up by 8.4% to 31.9 million from 29.4 million.
Meanwhile, the value of transactions done through InstaPay jumped by 45.2% to P2.1 trillion as of April from P1.45 trillion a year prior.
The volume of InstaPay transactions stood at 388.5 million in the period, growing by 77.9% from 218.3 million the previous year.
PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses launched in December 2015 under the central bank’s National Retail Payment System framework.
PESONet caters to high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to paper-based checks, while InstaPay is a real-time, low-value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is mostly used for remittances and e-commerce.
The central bank wanted 50% of the total volume and value of retail transactions done online by the end of 2023. It has said it was confident this goal was met amid the increase in the use of e-wallets and online fund transfers.
In 2022, the share of online payments in the total volume of retail transactions rose to 42.1% from 30.3% a year earlier.
The BSP is now working on its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap for 2024-2026. — LMJCJ
