The City of Alaminos in Pangasinan province adopted the “Paleng-QR Ph Plus” program to promote digital payments in public markets, public utility vehicles and business establishments.
A joint initiative of the BSP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the program encourages the use of Quick Response (QR) Ph—the national standard for QR code technology that provides a safe, convenient and efficient way of making and receiving payments for merchants and customers.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) North Luzon Regional Office (NLRO) regional director Noel Neil Malimban welcomed the collaborative undertaking among the BSP, DILG and city government that allows the citizens of Alaminos to enjoy digitalization.
Nearly 700 market vendors and over 3,600 tricycle drivers joined the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program in the city. With the issuance of an ordinance encouraging the use of digital payments, more vendors and PUV drivers in Alaminos are expected to get onboarded in the program.
The nationwide program supports the BSP’s thrust to convert half of the total volume of retail payments in the country into digital form and to onboard 70 percent of Filipinos to the formal financial system by this year under the BSP’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023.
The Paleng-QR Ph Plus is one of the priority programs under the BSP’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028, the guiding framework for all stakeholders working together to accelerate financial inclusion in the country.