Philippines might miss digital payments targets, says BSP

The Philippines might fail to reach its payments digitalization targets by 2028 as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) noted that progress has been slow amid worries over emerging cyber risks.

BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. said digitalization efforts are ongoing, but it might take beyond 2028 before the country can meet its targets under the Philippine Development Plan.

“Well, digitalization continues. It’s a good thing,” he told Money Talks with Cathy Yang on One News on Friday.

“At the same time, it brings with it some risks. We worry a lot about cyber risks. So, even as we encourage digitalization, we’re also trying to get the banks to also make sure that they defend themselves against cyber risks.”

Asked if the country remains on track with its target, Mr. Remolona said: “To be honest… it (digitalization) has been slow. We’re on track, but maybe it will take a couple more years than we thought to get where we want to go.”

The BSP wants digital payments to make up 60%-70% of the total volume of retail payments by 2028 in line with the Philippine Development Plan.

In 2024, online payments accounted for a 57.4% share in terms of volume and 59% in value terms in the country’s total monthly retail transactions, according to the BSP’s 2024 Status of Digital Payments in the Philippines report. These are up from 52.8% and 55.3%, respectively, in 2023. 

Earlier this month, BSP Deputy Governor Lyn I. Javier said social engineering, such as phishing scams, account takeover and identity theft, emerged as the top cyberthreat of the local banking system in the first half of 2025. This made up 76% of the total amount lost to financial fraud during the period.

This was followed by hacking, which accounted for 13% of the total losses, and card-not-present fraud with 8%.

The BSP deputy governor noted that the financial system’s digital shift is being challenged by more frequent, targeted and more scalable cyberthreats, and that interconnectedness has allowed more cybercriminals to penetrate the system through its vulnerabilities.

Among the BSP’s priority legislative agenda for the 20^th Congress is the Digital Payments Bill, which seeks to advance the use of digital payments in financial transactions between the National Government and the public.

This, as BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto E. Tangonan has noted that digital collections comprise only 25% of the government’s total collections.

The 20^th Congress has been working on measures aimed at modernizing the government’s payment systems.

In early February, Senator Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva filed Senate Bill No. 1821, a measure seeking to require all government agencies and relevant entities to adopt digital payment methods for the disbursement of government funds and collection of taxes, fees, tolls, imposts and other revenues.

It is currently pending for hearing in the Senate Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies Committee.

Enhancing the digital payments system, particularly by making cross-border payments safer and more seamless within the Southeast Asian region, is also one of the BSP’s key initiatives as part of the Philippines’ chairship in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year.

Since last year, the central bank has formalized the ASEAN Regional Payment Connectivity program, established 26 cross-border payment linkages as of August 2025, and has been developing a multilateral remittances service for overseas workers, migrants and small businesses under Project Nexus. — Katherine K. Chan