More Filipinos are opening basic deposit accounts — BSP

MANILA, Philippines — More Filipinos opened basic deposit accounts (BDA) in the final quarter of last year, boding well with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' goal of encouraging more people to open bank accounts.

Central bank data released Monday showed the number of BDAs in the country hit 7.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, up 19% year-on-year.

Introduced in 2018, the BDA is a deposit product that has a low account opening balance requirement of P100 or less, no maintaining balance, no dormancy charges, and simple identification requirements.

The BDA was created to meet the needs of the unbanked and low-income sector and foster greater financial inclusion.

In terms of value, total deposits in these BDAs amounted to P5.1 billion as of end-2021, a 7.6% increase from a year ago.

So far, 138 banks are offering BDAs. In November last year, the BSP issued regulatory relief measures to encourage more banks to offer a BDA.

Under the central bank’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, the BSP committed to raise the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 70% and shift 50% of total retail payments to electronic channels by 2023.