Digital fund transfers have grown significantly from 10% to 50% since banks and e-wallet providers cut their transfer fees.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials describe it as a “second wind” for financial inclusions, as this can encourage more Filipinos to open accounts and participate in using digital payments.
That said the Philippines is still on track to achieve the digital payment target by 2028. The BSP aims for 60% to 70% of all retail transactions, aligning with the government’s boarder development plan to expand its financial access and reduce the reliance on cash.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Malacañang, urges financial institutions to lower or eliminate digital transfers. At present almost all major local banks have already removed their transfer fees. Land Bank of the Philippines and the Bank of the Philippines Island (BSP) were the first banks to fully waive their transfer fees.
Followed by UnionBank of the Philippines (UB), The Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Banco De Oro (BDO). While Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) reduced its InstaPay Charges for the first 30 transfer with a minimum transaction amounting to PHP100.
This simply means that customers are now able to transfer money between accounts with greater ease and convenience, and without having to worry about paying additional costs in each transaction.
This can result in financial services that are more accessible and user-friendly, allowing individuals to manage their funds more efficiently while encouraging wider adoption of digital payment methods.
While two dominate e-wallets, GCash and Maya just reduced their fees from 5 pesos to 10 pesos, while not completely; this cut makes digital transfer more affordable for the users.
Adoptions of the Policy
The BSP Circular No. 1238, which took effect last July 4, 2026, urges that banks and other supervised financial institutions must keep fees for person-to-person transfer across different institutions are usually free.
Designed to ensure fairness and affordability to prevent institutions from discouraging cross-platform usage with excessive fees and therefore encourage more Filipinos to join the formal financial system.
The BSP expects that any fee charged for interbank transfer should mainly reflect the network switch operator’s cost. It has been speculated that elevated fund transfers charges are the reasons why people avoid using digital financial services.
The BSP also noted that while the institutions could adopt different pricing, they must still ensure that their fess is still fair for their customers.
Some banks and e-wallets misunderstood the BSP’s pricing framework at first; thinking they will be required to eliminate fees entirely. Tangonan clarified that the goal was to make sure that the fees should be close or not higher than intra-bank or intra-wallet fees, which are usually free.
Tangonan emphasized that banks should compete by offering better products, loans, insurance, and investment services Instead of relying on transfer fees for revenue, which aligned more with the BSP’s vision for a more inclusive and competitive financial ecosystem.
The BSP has urged banks and e-wallets to keep the interbank transfer fees “close to or not higher than “the charges for transfers within the same institutions.” The goal is to bring those outside the formal financial system into it, lowering transfer fees as a critical step towards that objective.
Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan stressed out that reducing fees might bring more people into the formal finance and formal economy. He noted that if more people adopt digital payment, more merchants encourage them to accept them. BSP sees lower fees not just as a convenience, but as a strategic tool to accelerate financial inclusion.
he also explained that wider use of digital payments can raise the GDP per capita and reduce informality. By shifting more to payments using digital channels, the BSP hopes to keep strengthening the formal economy.
Tangonan also shared that one large bank reported increase in onboarding of new customers aided by using the National ID authentication services, this just shows that the policy is attracting more Filipinos with no prior digital experiences to onboard.
while it still early to determine the full impact on microentrepreneurs and small merchants of increasing number of people using digital payments, this should still create a “network effect” that encourage more business to accept and onboard through the electronic payment services.
Outlook of the Central Bank
Tangonan credited the transformation to the “rails” built by BSP: InstaPay , PESONet , and QR Ph, which provide the backbone for fast, and interoperable digital transactions.
Even though a recent plateau, the BSP remains committed to its 2028 target of having 70: of all payment digitally, current data showed that transaction through InstaPay and PESONet reached ₱13.18 trillion during the first five months of 2026, ₱9.13 trillion in the same period last year.
The indicates growing number of Filipinos are increasingly depending on digital channels for their everyday payment needs, which consequently helps strengthen the formal economy and gradually reduces the continued reliance on cash transactions.
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