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Philippines: BSP to develop registry for growing cash agents
MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is planning to put up a registry to improve the monitoring nationwide of cash agents that have more than tripled since the start of the pandemic.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said in his weekly virtual press conference that the agent registry would be a tool for effective monitoring of agents for financial supervision, consumer protection and financial inclusion.
“This agent registry is a tool that can generate information on the number of agents, their location, services and transactions, among others,” he said.
Cash agents are retail outlets like small shops, convenience stores, supermarkets, pharmacies and pawnshops contracted by banks to offer basic banking services and perform real-time financial transactions for customers in far-flung areas.
They can accept and disburse cash in behalf of a bank, allowing customers to perform self-service transactions, including deposits and withdrawals, balance inquiries, fund transfers and bills payments.
Diokno said the BSP is currently working with a development partner that will provide technical support to develop a prototype of the agent registry.
According to the central bank, the registry will help streamline submission of agent data by BSP-supervised financial institutions, provide timely access to and use as tool for agent data analysis, measure the depth and reach of agent services as well as empower consumers through a searchable agent data base to help them safely transact with agents.
Amid the global health crisis, data showed the number of active cash agents jumped to 52,000 last year from 17,000 in 2019, further boosting the central bank’s financial inclusion efforts.
The BSP chief said cash agents helped increase the percentage of cities and municipalities reached by banking services to 85 percent from 70 percent.
“They play a significant role in financial inclusion by expanding the reach of financial services beyond bank branches and transitioning the unbanked population from cash to digital transactions,” Diokno said.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/10/15/2134179/bsp-develop-registry-growing-cash-agents