The rise of e-wallets

MANILA, Philippines — Digital wallets have overtaken credit card penetration in the country and are now consumers’ preferred payment method next to cash, according to PayMaya Philippines, the financial services arm of PLDT's Voyager Innovations.

Kenneth Palacios, director and head of consumer business at PayMaya, said more Filipinos now prefer to use emerging payment options for their financial transactions. 

He said consumers today pay using their e-wallets not only for their online purchases, but also for goods and services bought in-store such as groceries and quick-service restaurants.

"Digital payments adoption is fast growing and PayMaya can attest to the Filipino consumers’ shift to e-wallet as their top payment method,” Palacios said.

Citing the latest financial inclusion dashboard released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), PayMaya said e-wallet accounts have jumped by 22 percent to 33 million in 2018, with e-wallet account penetration surpassing that of credit card.

Based on the BSP report, 31 e-wallet accounts are used for every 100 Filipinos, as of compared to nine credit cards per 100 individuals during the fourth quarter of last year.

In its 2019 Consumer Brand study, PayMaya said top three reasons why respondents turn to e-wallets like PayMaya is because of the convenience to open an account, no fees, and easy Add Money features.

It said such features are answers to the top barriers cited by the respondents of the BSP’s latest Financial Inclusion survey for not owning a formal account, namely not having enough funds to start an account, and lack documentary requirements.

 “PayMaya simply offers the most convenient way to open an account. You can have an account either by downloading the PayMaya app from the App store or Google Play Store or through Messenger. We do not require any maintaining balance. You can control your finances with PayMaya because the amount that you place in the account is the only money you can spend, no more, no less,” Palacios said.

 “With majority of Filipinos still without bank accounts, PayMaya is the most viable option to allow them to have access to financial products to do financial transactions whether offline or online. It is providing consumers with a better way to pay other than cash and cards,” he said.

PayMaya is a leading digital financial services company in the Philippines offering integrated consumer and merchant payment solutions with the widest on-ground branch network.

Meanwhile, PayMaya Business, Voyager’s merchants business arm, is the largest payments processor, enabling universal payment acceptance for all merchants, from street vendors to top 1,000 corporations.

Voyager’s remittance business, Smart Padala, holds the largest remittance network with over 27,000 agents serving as the lifeblood of grassroots communities across the country.