Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian pressed Congress leaders to front-load deliberation for the early approval of the proposed One Filipino, One Bank Account law envisioned to propel digitalization of financial transactions soon as lawmakers reconvene regular sessions on May 17.
Gatchalian said the remedial legislation aims to ensure equal access to financial services by boosting digitalization of financial transactions in the country.
“We are pushing for financial inclusion because less than 20 percent of the population have personal bank accounts,” he said noting “this means majority still prefer cash amid the pandemic.”
“We are pushing for the passage of this measure on financial inclusion since only 20 percent of the total population have their own bank accounts. The rest remain unbanked, but the pandemic times dictate a shift to digital transactions, especially in digital banking payments. This is the prevailing global trend,” Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, said in Filipino.
The remedial legislation embodied in the “One Filipino, One Bank Account” mandates the opening of a bank account or “virtual wallet’ for every Filipino that, Gatchalian pointed out, would serve as a payment platform of the government in distributing financial aid, including educational assistance and medical assistance, among many others, adding that the bill that he plans to file will not require a minimum deposit amount.
In a news statement, Gatchalian envisions that in making every Filipino a bank account or virtual wallet holder, “more Filipinos will be able to engage in cashless transactions” or digital payments, which have been the norm since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
The senator cited the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s financial inclusion survey, stating that those who used their account for payment transactions more than doubled to 39 percent in 2019 from 18 percent in 2017.
“They cited that most of those transactions are receipts of salary and government benefits,” he said, noting that “while for those who do not use their account for payments, the topmost reason is preference for cash transactions, followed by lack of awareness that an account can be used for payments.”
He noted the survey also showed that Internet or mobile banking significantly lags behind other modes of transactions for all types of account. Bank and e-money accounts are mostly transacted via automated teller machines and only marginally are via online or mobile platforms. Over the counter is the most commonly used mode of transaction for all other types of accounts. Microfinance non-government organization accounts registered the lowest use of ATMs.