Electronic banking consortium BancNet recently held its annual stockholders meeting online.
BancNet president Fabian S. Dee told the stockholders that 2022 was a record year for the consortium, playing a pivotal role in expanding digital payments as the country returned to near normalcy and the economy gradually recovered with the waning of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Our two main businesses—InstaPay and ATM reached new heights in 2022, setting new records in both volume and value. As a result, we closed the year with a net income of P99.14 million and an ROE of 9.82%, “ he reported.
For her part, CEO Elmarie S. Reyes reported that BancNet processed a record 1.27 billion interbank transactions in 2022, 19 % more than the total in 2021. This includes 538 million InstaPay transactions which grew by 25%, ATM withdrawal transactions of 389 million which grew by 16% and 124 million POS transactions, up by 25% from 2021.
Despite the huge volume, BancNet’s robust systems delivered high average switch availability rates during the year, both for InstaPay (99.97%), and ATM transactions (99.98%).
“We expect the upward trend in transactions to continue in 2023 and beyond. For Instapay, the interoperable BillsPay Ph, a service we launched in 2022; our various efforts to expand the adoption of payments to merchants using a QR Ph code; and a new use case we will introduce this year will contribute to this trend,” Dee added.
BillsPay Ph is an InstaPay facility for real-time processing of digital payments to billing companies, or billers, whose accounts are in banks and e-wallets different from the customer’s. BillsPay Ph is part of the digital payments roadmap towards achieving the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ goal of converting 50% of retail payments to cashless by 2023. By end 2022, the service was available from 14 participating banks, e-wallets, and a payment center, and 1,362 billers.
In his message to shareholders, Chairman of the Board Nestor V. Tan said, “BancNet will continue to be an enabler. Our key role is to allow financial institutions and money or electronic wallets to have interconnectivity with each other. BancNet is the link that opens a new entrance into the whole ecosystem. This is why, now and in the future, stability of operations is crucial. We can sum it up in two words: No surprises. We have to keep on top of capacity, keep on top of resiliency, keep on top of the battle against cyberattacks, keep on top of technology. A lot of work is involved in making sure that we stay on top of developments. We cannot be left behind because we have the whole industry relying on us. If BancNet falls behind, it will have an impact on the whole economy.”
