The Philippine Statistics Authority and state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines have moved the needle in reducing the number of unbanked Filipinos through a co-location strategy that has introduced financial services to around 8.4 million persons registered with the statistics agency.
Aside from collecting economic and other data, the PSA is also responsible for issuing certificates of birth, marriage, and death as well as the collection of information for and the issuance of national identifications.
Of the 8.4 million that PSA and LANDBANK onboarded, the statistics agency said a total 5.8 million were able to open transaction accounts with the state-owned lender.
Registered Filipinos were able to open transaction accounts with Landbank in PSA’s PhilSys registration centers.
PSA said the service is free and provides registered persons formal access to financial services with the issuance of a banking card that requires no initial deposit and no maintaining balance.
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa said the initiative with LANDBANK is part of the government’s efforts to improve financial inclusion among Filipinos.
He said PhilSys registered Filipinos who were issued LANDBANK Prepaid Cards accounted for 108,473 transactions through their mobile banking application, point-of-sale, and over-the-counter transactions whose value amounted PHP275.8 million.
Mapa said the collaboration with LANDBANK will continue to further reduce the number of unbanked Filipinos.
