As the Philippines is catching up in making most transactions cashless, there has been much progress in this regard since 2020. While eWallets like GCash and Maya are widely used by Filipinos, on top of being able to manage their bank accounts online, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. Chief among these are transaction fees for services like InstaPay and PesoNet. With fees ranging from Php 5 to Php 25, these transaction fees can be a big deal for the normal Filipino–and the BSP wants to find ways to either lower them or eliminate them completely.

The @BangkoSentral is ready to work with the industry to find ways to eliminate fees on small-value fund transfers and incentivize more Filipinos to use #digitalpayments. If the fee is P15 for a P200 transaction, then the fee is quite large relative to the amount being sent.

— Felipe M. Medalla (@BSPGovMedalla) February 25, 2023

Citing a Php 200 digital transaction as his example, BSP governor Felipe Medalla explained in his tweet that a Php 15 transaction fee is considered big already. Medalla’s suggestion is that he wants to find ways to eliminate transaction fees “on small-value fund transfers and incentivize more Filipinos to use digital payments.”

“We are ready to collaborate with banks and payment system operators to explore a cost-sharing system that excludes small transactions from these types of fees,” Medalla explained, adding that the BSP is even considering cutting the reserve requirement so that banks can help in reducing transaction fees.

We are definitely all for this proposal from BSP to reduce transaction fees for all digital transactions–and maybe eliminate them completely for small transactions. The Philippines may still have a long road toward a true cashless payment future, and BSP’s proposal of reducing transaction fees is one of the things that need to happen to encourage more Filipinos to go cashless.