FOUR out of every 10 Filipinos are now using e-money or digital wallets for payments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

The BSP said that they are confident that they will be able to reach the 50 percent digitalization target targeting retail payments before the end of 2023.

Records said that in 2022, some 42.1 percent of retail payments have been converted into digital form.

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said that the e-money users are slowly gaining steam as they continually use it using e-money accounts.

Tangonan said that to keep tier projection in the upward trend, they are open in talking with banks digital transactions platforms to lower or waive transaction fees for small transactions under P1,000.

“These fees, it presents a barrier and there is a reluctance to pay. Since we’re encouraging digital payments, let’s offer them micropayments so they will get to use more,” Tangonan said.

Meanwhile, the BSP is giving time for e-money platforms to study the impact of waiving transaction fees to their balance sheets.

Digital bank Maya had expressed support for the government’s vision.

E-wallet platform GCash said that they will look into the operational costs.

To encourage consumers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to shift to digital transactions, Cashless Expo was mounted wherein all merchant payments are in digital form.