BSP eyes offline payment solutions to boost financial inclusion in off-grid areas

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday it was eyeing offline digital payment solutions to allow transactions without the need for an internet connection.

In a statement, the BSP said offline digital payments solutions will boost financial inclusion in off-grid areas.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said that while an effective and reliable internet connectivity is a necessary condition for digital finance to flourish, the central bank is also pursuing digital solutions to enable "offline payments."

The central bank said it was working on this initiative under the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap (DPTR) which aims to convert 50% of the volume of retail payments into digital form and onboard 70% of Filipino adults to the formal financial system by 2023.

The BSP said earlier that digital payments volume had reached 20% in 2020.

A BSP report said that 20.1% of monthly payments volume were done digitally by the end of 2020, a substantial improvement over six months from last year’s first semester estimates which pegged digital payments volume at 17%.

The value of digital payments likewise substantially grew from 25% to 26.8% for the same period, according to the central bank.

The increased usage of digital payments was largely driven by high-frequency, low-value retail transactions such as person-to-merchant payments and person-to-person (P2P) payments such as electronic fund transfers, it said.

The health protocols that entailed social mobility restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged to be a strong catalyst for the wider adoption of digital payments in the country, according to the BSP. — DVM, GMA News