The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has directed banks and financial institutions to ensure uninterrupted customer support service during the long weekends and holidays.
BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said all BSP supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) participating in the PESONet and InstaPay should ensure the availability and accessibility of customer support service for clients during regular, special, and non-working holidays.
“In light of the expected digital payment transactions occurring during regular and special non-working holidays in the Philippines (e.g. Holy Week, Araw ng Kagitingan, Labor Day, long weekends), all BSFIs participating in the PESONet and InstaPay are reminded to ensure the continued availability and accessibility of their respective customer service,” Tangonan stated in Memorandum No. 2023 – 11.
Tangonan said hotlines and other support services of PESONet and InstaPay of banks and financial institutions should be able to promptly and effectively provide assistance to clients regarding their electronic fund transfer platforms during non-working periods.
“BSFIs must ensure that the public is accorded adequate and uninterrupted customer support service on non-working days,” Tangonan stressed.
In June last year, the regulator issued Memorandum No. 2022 – 029 directing banks to strictly adhere to the guidelines on handling consumer concerns on PESONet and InstaPay transactions.
Under the guidelines, BSFIs are required to provide customer accessibility to a wide range of accessible contact channels for the appropriate communication of consumer concerns, including but not limited to customer service hotlines, email, and chatbot to ensure timely and adequate response to the concerns of customers.
BSP Governor Felipe Medalla earlier said that the Philippines continue to catch up with the level of digitalization efforts of neighbors in Southeast Asia with the value of electronic fund transfers jumping by 34.5 percent in the first two months of the year.
Latest data from the central bank showed the value of electronic fund transfers coursed through the PESONet and InstaPay reached P1.83 trillion in the first two months of the year from P1.36 trillion in the same period last year as more Filipinos continue to embrace digitalization.
Under its Digital Payment Transformation Roadmap, the central bank aims to shift 50 percent of total retail transactions to electronic channels and onboard at least 70 percent of Filipino adults to the financial system through the ownership and use of a transaction account by 2023.
With the COVID-19 pandemic serving as catalyst, the share of digital payments to total retail transactions increased to 30.3 percent in 2021 from 20.1 percent in 2020. Prior to the launch of the NRPS, the share of electronic payments to total retail transactions stood at only one percent in 2013.
Likewise, the number of banked Filipino adults almost doubled to 56 percent in 2021 from 29 percent in 2019.
