State-run Landbank of the Philippines issued a statement on Wednesday clarifying false reports of free financial assistance from its Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) registration drive.
Landbank said the cards being provided for free to unbanked national ID registrants have no initial deposit required and are not pre-loaded with government subsidy or ‘ayuda’.
The statement comes after crowds expecting for financial assistance turned up at various PhilSys registration centers due to false information circulating online.
Landbank is co-locating with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the PhilSys rollouts nationwide to provide unbanked registrants with their own transaction accounts to bring more Filipinos into the formal banking system.
PhilSys registrants without a bank account are encouraged to open a Landbanktransaction account. The Landbank card can be used to manage funds and make financial transactions such as withdraw and send money, shop and pay bills online, among others.
As of 31 October 2021, Landbank has onboarded 6.14 million unbanked PhilSys registrants for their own transaction accounts from 1,296 registration sites in 62 provinces nationwide.
Earlier this month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) instructed banks and other local financial institutions to accept the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID as sufficient proof of identity to open a bank account.
BSP governor Benjamin Diokno said the PhilSys ID – both in physical and mobile formats – shall be accepted as sufficient proof of identity without the need for another ID.
Diokno also said the national ID system is expected to support the wide scale opening of transaction accounts, particularly the Basic Deposit Account, which is designed to meet the needs of the unbanked.
“PhilSys will help more Filipinos, especially the marginalized and low-income, to begin saving money in banks and other BSFIs,” Diokno said.