THE volume of transactions under the Philippine Payments System (PhilPaSS) at end-December last year has improved, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

In its latest report, the central bank said the volume and value of transactions of its online and real time gross settlement system inched up 2.78 percent and 12.36 percent, respectively, to 152,638 and P49.33 trillion, because of the increase in transactions during the holiday season.

In December alone, the volume of transactions hit P17.07 trillion, up 9.42 percent from P15.6 trillion in November last year.

The BSP said PhilPaSS is a safer and more cost-efficient channel for the delivery or deposit of funds to intended beneficiaries, especially since the accounts are maintained with a bank.

Earlier, the BSP signed an agreement with the Association of Bank Remittance Officers that would allow the use of PhilPaSS as a link to send money to overseas Filipino worker beneficiaries’ accounts in other banks.

With this system, banks can offer a standard back-end processing fee of P50 per remittance transaction, or half the P100 paid to remit P550. This meant overseas Filipinos would save P50 to P500 in remittance fees per transaction.

The BSP has been encouraging banks to use PhilPass to bring down transaction fees.
Lailany P. Gomez