Bank account ownership in the Philippines remains below the regional average in Asia-Pacific, according to the 2017 Global Findex report published by the World Bank.
The report said 34.5 percent of Filipino adults had a formal account to save money, make or receive payments and receive wages or financial help.
It said compared with Asean peers, the Philippines ranked in the middle, with Singapore [97.9 percent] and Cambodia [21.7 percent] at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
“The country’s level of account ownership fell short of the average for East Asia and the Pacific [70.6 percent] and lower middle income countries [57.8 percent],” the report said.
Formal account refers to an account held in financial institutions such as banks, cooperatives or microfinance institutions and can be an electronic money account as well.
Data, however, showed that formal account penetration in the country improved by 3.2 percentage points from 31.3 percent in 2014, translating to more than 3.7 million Filipino adults who opened an account in the past three years.
“While gains are modest, the Philippines made remarkable strides in indicators pertaining to digital payments. The share of adults who used the internet to pay bills or buy something online grew by 6.3 percentage points to 9.9 percent in 2017, while those who made or received digital payments in the past year rose by 5.6 percentage points to 25.1 percent in 2017,” it said.
It said the prospects looked bright as the Philippines took deliberate measures towards digitization. It cited the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s effort to continue to champion the National Retail Payment System, its flagship program for digital finance.
This is supported by other government initiatives such as the digitization of government payments and implementation of the Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap.
The government is also setting the foundation of a digital ecosystem through legislative measures such as the biometric national ID bill and Payment Systems Act.
The 2017 Global Findex also highlighted key challenges to disadvantaged segments such as farmers and small businesses. Those who borrowed to start, operate or expand a farm or business declined to 4.2 percent in 2017 from 13.6 percent in 2014. One in five adults received payments for the sale of agricultural goods, slightly unchanged from 2014 to 2017.
Aligned with this finding, the BSP is focusing its financial inclusion work to sectors that have long been wanting for much needed financial services such as agriculture and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises,” it said.