Thursday, 08 May 2025, 10:06 pm

Manila digital financial transactions some of the more compelling narratives in region – ADB

The Philippines owns one of the more successful programs in the digital transformation process of countries monitored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to the ADB, the number of adult Filipinos using digital financial services increased to 51.4 percent of the population in 2021 from only 34.5 percent in 2017, considered “one of the most impressive in Southeast Asia.”

“During the same period, Cambodia saw numbers jumping to 33.4 percent from 21.7 percent, Indonesia to 51.8 percent from 48.9 percent, Lao People’s Democratic Republic to 37.3 percent from 29.1 percent, Malaysia to 88.4 percent from 85.3 percent, and Thailand to 95.6 percent from 81.6 percent,” the multilateral financial institution said.

It particularly noted the various sovereigns endeavor to widen access to financial services and ensure individuals and small businesses achieve prosperity and upward mobility.

But at the same time it stressed that for the sovereigns to reach both the unbanked and the underserved, the financial solutions must be delivered at low cost, are scalable, sustainable, and responsible. Cloud-based services offer one way to do this.

According also to the ADB, there are cloud-based solutions that are able to do this efficiently.

Context.ph information show Filipinos first patronizing the now highly popular Maya and GCash digital wallets as early as 2001. Subsequent reports would quote that 25 million Filipino adults conduct financial transactions using mobile wallets.

More recently, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that monthly retail payments grew over 41 percent in 2022 from only 30.3 percent the year before.

The rising volume of digital payments made each month approximates the BSP goal of converting at least 50 percent of all retail transactions be done in digital form consistent with its Digital Payments Transportation Roadmap.

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