The monetary authorities would rather that the various digital payments operators decide for themselves the fee charged against their customers than set them via regulatory fiat.
Assistant Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Edna Villa emphasized this at a recent online discussion where she said the regulatory view is against controlling how large the transaction charges should be.
“Our approach is we encourage competition and ensure the playing field is level, competitive,” the BSP executive said.
“In general, we try to encourage a reasonable market-based pricing” for the participants, she quickly added.
Villa was asked on whether there was merit on the notion that such players as PayMaya, GCash and others ought to be told as to how much the transaction should cost the customer sending money to family or friends through these platforms.
PayMaya charges users of its platform a small fraction of funds paid the utilities companies, for instance, although some believe a fixed amount is better.
The monetary authorities are convinced the e-money players are doing well in cutting down the cost of such transactions and do it in a manner that is fast, secure and convenient for the transacting public.
They note the various players use digital technology to serve an increasingly wider set of clients, cutting down the cost of such transactions further.
