BSP creates Payments and Currency Management Sector, appoints new DG

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday announced the creation of a new department that will manage the interplay of physical currency and digital money, in line with efforts to shift to a cash-lite economy.

In a virtual briefing, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the Payments and Currency Management Sector (PCMS) will handle the licensing and supervision of payment system operations and the formulation of strategies and policies for currency and payments system including the digital payments transformation.

The PCMS also handles the Philippine Payment and Settlement System and the administration of the digital Personal Equity Retirement Account (PERA), the voluntary retirement saving program that supplements retirement benefits from the Social Security System (SSS), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and employers.

It will also be responsible for producing banknotes, coins, and securities documents; refining gold; printing of cards for the national ID; anti-counterfeiting operations; currency forecasting; currency retirement; and the servicing of bank deposits and withdrawals in the greater Manila area.

"PCMS is tasked to maintain the safety and integrity of the local currency and to ensure a well-functioning payments and cash ecosystem that supports sustained and inclusive economic growth," said Diokno.

"This is aligned with the BSP's Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap which aims to achieve efficient, safe, and inclusive payments ecosystems," he added.

Diokno said the PCMS is headed by deputy governor Mamerto Tangonan who was appointed some two weeks ago, as concurred by the Monetary Board, bringing with him over 28 years of experience in digital and traditional financial services, telecommunications, technology, financial inclusion, and consulting services.

Prior to his appointment, Tangonan led a six-year USAIF-funded program on the E-PESO project aimed at accelerating the shift of the Philippine economy from cash to digital payments. He led a team in providing technical assistance to the BSP in the policy formulation and implementation of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS).

Among the personal targets of Tangonan in his new role is to push forward with Diokno's directive to bring the central bank closer to the public through rolling out additional digital payment streams in the next two years.

"Moving beyond electronic fund transfers with the highly successful PESONet and InstaPay, we will be working very closely with the BSP internal units as well as industry participants... in order to roll out and make available to the market additional payment streams," he said in the same briefing.

Included in the additional payment streams is the QRPh or the national standard for quick response codes. It unifies various domestic cashless payment schemes and allows a single code label to be used for multiple transaction types.

Tangonan also led a team that provided government support in tax collection via e-payments, assisted in the establishment of a first mobile money payroll by a local government unit in Pulilan, Bulacan; and developed the mobile money disbursement system used by Quezon City.

He also served as general manager of PT Smart Telecom; the director of Globe Telecom Inc. where he handled the project management of G-Cash mobile banking project for rural banks; and the first vice president of ING Life Insurance Co. (Phils.), Inc.

The newest deputy government took his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of the Philippines and his executive MBA from the Asian Institute of Management. 

To recall, the BSP launched InstaPay in April 2018, an electronic fund transfer (EFT) payment system that enables individuals to wire funds across banks in real-time.

Meanwhile, PESONet was launched in 2017, enabling the government, businesses, and individuals to initiate electronic fund transfers and recurring payments in financial institutions supervised by the central bank within the same banking day.

In July last year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said he wants at least half of all Philippine transactions done digitally by the end of his term in 2023. — BM, GMA News