Citing the objective of the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is considering lowering transaction fees for e-payments and other platforms.

“I am sure that the Bangko Sentral and our partners in the banking system will be able to find a cost-sharing system that excludes payments from fees, provided they are made below a certain number of transactions,” said BSP Governor Felipe Medalla.

The cut may be applied to small e-payments in the hopes of making a more inclusive financial system.

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Some banks charge P25 transaction fees even within their own system. The lowest cost, so far, is P10.

“One way to make digitalization more inclusive is to make small transactions free of charge so that low-income households can be encouraged to use digital payments,” Medalla said. “If the value of the transaction is small and the charge is P15, for example, that fee is quite large relative to the transaction.”

The BSP Roadmap aims to convert half of retail payments volume into digital form and to onboard 70 percent of Filipino adults onto the formal financial system within this year.