By Katherine K. Chan
THE VALUE of transactions made via the automated clearing houses InstaPay and PESONet grew by 41.1% to over P17 trillion at end-September, with InstaPay transfers reaching over P1 trillion for the first time last month.
InstaPay and PESONet transactions increased to P17.458 trillion in the first nine months of 2025 from P12.369 trillion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the volume of transactions coursed through the clearing houses more than doubled (175.7%) to 2.89 billion in the period from 974.406 million.
Broken down, the value of transactions done on InstaPay surged by 54.5% to P7.945 trillion as of September from P5.144 trillion a year prior.
In September alone, InstaPay transfers were valued at P1.017 trillion, marking the first time that transactions made via the payment gateway reached the trillion-peso mark for a single month.
The volume of InstaPay transactions soared by 187.8% to 2.804 billion in the nine months to September from 974.406 million the previous year.
On the other hand, the value of PESONet transactions amounted to P7.945 trillion in the nine-month period, climbing by 31.7% from P5.144 trillion a year ago.
The volume of transactions made through the gateway also rose by 16.2% year on year to 85.926 million from 73.972 million.
InstaPay and PESONet are automated clearing houses under the central bank’s National Retail Payment System framework.
InstaPay is a real-time, low-value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is mostly used for remittances and e-commerce.
Meanwhile, PESONet is mainly used for high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to paper-based checks.
“The sustained double-digit growth could reflect increased use by more Filipinos of electronic commerce and other businesses, as well as personal transactions that use digital payment solutions such as InstaPay and PESONet that are already integrated in digital banking fund transfers,” Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Viber message.
Digital transactions are becoming more mainstream and are now widely used in the local economy, he said, “even at the grassroots level around the country, especially in more rural areas including those that are unbanked, thereby further increasing financial inclusion provided there is mobile data or internet signal.”
Consumers are moving towards online transfers as these are more convenient than over-the-counter transactions or check payments and can be done at any time and from anywhere, “saving on time, effort and costs,” Mr. Ricafort said.
“For the coming months, strong growth could still be sustained as more Filipinos adopt digital banking and payment solutions as reflected in the strong growth in online business and personal transactions as alternative to using cash and checks,” he added.
Improving financial literacy in the country is also helping accelerate the adoption of digital payments, bringing more Filipinos into the formal financial system, he said.
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.
The share of online payments in monthly retail transactions stood at 57.4% in terms of volume and 59% in value terms in 2024, 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.
