BSP confident it would hit digital payments targets by 2023

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)  on Tuesday expressed optimism that it will achieve its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap (DPTR) targets by 2023.

Under the DPTR, the central bank is aiming to digitalize at least 50% of retail payments volume and onboarding 70% of Filipino adults to the formal financial system via a payment or transaction account by 2023.

“We are confident of hitting the twin goals,” said BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno.

In terms of volume, the BSP said the share of digital payments to total financial transactions reached 20.1% in 2020 from 14% in 2019 and only 1% in 2013.

“As more Filipinos embrace the convenience of digital payments, we expect the phenomenal growth in digital financial transactions to continue in the years ahead,” said Diokno.

Meanwhile, registered e-money accounts reached 138.8 million last year with the total number of transactions at 1.7 billion.

Likewise, the number of basic deposit accounts reached seven million with P4.8 billion deposits in the first quarter of 2021.

With this, the BSP noted that the proportion of “banked” Filipino adults has reached 53% in the first quarter of 2021, nearing the target of 70%.

“With financial digitalization, I am confident that we will achieve the stronger post-COVID economy that we envision sooner rather than later,” said Diokno. —KG, GMA News