MANILA, Philippines — Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Metrobank’s consumer banking arm Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) have joined the growing list of banks that have extended free digital cash transfer services to help achieve the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s goal of transforming the country to a cash-lite economy.
Jose Arnulfo Veloso, president and CEO at PNB, said the bank extended anew the waiver of fees for InstaPay and PesoNet until March 31 next year to encourage more of its customers to use digital banking channels.
“PNB fully supports the BSP’s call to promote digital channels for fund transfers. We continue to strengthen our campaign on encouraging more customers to use digital banking since the start of the community quarantine. We see digital banking is gaining ground as customers learn more about the benefits of these services,” Veloso said.
While all of its branches are open, Veloso said PNB is giving customers the safer option of banking online to minimize the need to go out of their homes to visit branches and ATMs.
“We see an upward trend in digital transactions as more customers get enrolled. Customers have become more comfortable in using these digital applications through their computers and smartphones. All these efforts are aligned to our bank-wide initiatives as we continue to thrive in the New Normal,” Veloso said.
On the other hand, PSBank has announced it is waiving the fees for InstaPay and PESONet transactions made via PSBank online and mobile app until further notice.
The country’s largest mid-sized or thrift bank said it would continue to waive charges for its PaSend: Instant cash padala that enables clients to send instant cash from their accounts via the PSBank mobile app to their beneficiaries even when they don’t have an existing deposit account.
The retail banking arm of the Ty-led Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) has a network of 257 branches as well as 557 ATMs nationwide.
Aside from Metrobank, other banks that waived InstaPay and PESONet transaction fees until March 31 include Sy-led China Banking Corp. and Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines.
Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) further extended the free InstaPay and PESONet transactions until the end-January.