PesoNet, InstaPay fee increases stopped by BSP

Person-to-person fund transfer fee increases will temporarily be suspended, as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday announced a moratorium covering both InstaPay and PESONet.

In a statement, the BSP said banks and e-money issuers (EMIs) participating in InstaPay and PESONet will not be allowed to increase fees, but they may waive or reduce their current fees.

Participating banks and EMIs with waived transfer fees can also restart charging such fees at the level prior to such waiver. Over 30 banks earlier announced the waiver of interbank transaction fees at least until the end of 2021.

“[M]aintaining transfer fees at this time is expected to boost the country’s post-pandemic recovery,” the BSP said.

To recall, local lenders earlier committed to waive PESONet and InstaPay fees until the end of 2020 .

Based on an issuance of the Monetary Board, fees cannot be hiked until pricing standards or guidelines have been issued by the BSP, or until the volume of digital payments reaches 40%, whichever comes first.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno earlier said he wanted at least 50% of all Philippine transactions done digitally by the end of his term in 2023.

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. —NB, GMA News