Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona on Thursday committed to making financial products and services safe, accessible and affordable for all.
“Like my predecessors, I am fully committed to broaden and deepen the reach of financial inclusion, toward financial health, resilience, and a better life for millions of Filipinos,” Remolona said during the 2023 Global Policy Forum of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.
He said the lockdown at the height of the pandemic triggered a boom in online selling and digital payments for goods and services from businesses that were quick to adapt to mobility constraints. Citing available data, he said the share of digital transactions to retail payments in the country increased from 14 percent in 2019 to 42 percent in 2022.
Many consumers opened digital accounts or e-wallets. Government also used digital accounts to distribute cash assistance during the pandemic.
As a result, mobile wallet ownership surged from 8 percent in 2019 to 36 percent in 2021. This helped raise the overall number of Filipinos with transaction accounts from 29 percent in 2019 to 56 percent in 2021, or equivalent to 22 million Filipinos who became financially included in the span of two years.