Tech-Savvy Phl Economy Pushed

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) remains at the forefront of broad initiatives to foster a stronger and more technologically-advanced Philippine economy.

Photo Insert: Digital banks are expected to help fuel economic recovery and long-term growth.

"Technology aids exponential growth in output. In finance, it makes transactions easier and faster which speeds up income generation," said BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno during a recent Standard Chartered Sovereign-Investor Forum.

A key BSP initiative in this regard is the implementation of the Digital Payment Transformation Roadmap, which was launched last year.

The roadmap aims to transform the Philippines into a cash-lite economy by 2023 through the digitalization of financial services.

Under the roadmap, the BSP aims to strengthen customer preference for digital payments by converting 50 percent of the total volume of retail payments into digital form and onboarding 70 percent of Filipino adults to the formal financial system through payment or transaction accounts by 2023.

Moreover, the BSP actively promotes digital banking and has recently issued six digital bank licenses. This is expected to further accelerate the creation of e-money accounts.

A digital bank is a bank that offers financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and/or electronic channels with no physical; -branch/sub-branch or branch-lite unit offering the same.

"We expect the digital banks to help fuel recovery and long-term growth for the Philippines, alongside conventional banks," the Governor said.

"The Philippines does not simply aim to recover from the crisis. There is a whole-of-government effort toward a post-COVID Philippine economy that is better than ever. This means an economy that is stronger, more technologically advanced, more inclusive, and sustainable."

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