THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has asked some banks and electronic money issuers to explain their electronic fund transfer pricing amid a regulatory push for fair and reasonable fees.
BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan told reporters on Monday that the central bank wanted to understand why some financial institutions were continuing to impose what it considers relatively high fees for interbank transfers.
“We invited them to come over to have a discussion,” Tangonan said.
He did not identify the “several” institutions and said the meetings this week were intended to clarify pricing models rather than the pursuit of enforcement action.
“Just so we’re on the same page. We’ll give them a chance to explain where they are, why [pricing is] like that,” Tangonan said.
The BSP recently issued a circular requiring banks and electronic money issuers to adopt a fairer and more reasonable pricing framework for electronic fund transfers after conducting a benchmarking exercise.
Tongonan said a review found that institutions incurred similar operational costs regardless of whether a transfer was made within the same institution, or ”on-us,” or sent to another institution, known as an interbank or “off-us” transfer.
These costs include information technology infrastructure, cybersecurity systems, fraud management, customer support and other operational expenses.
Under the BSP’s framework, the common costs should no longer be loaded almost entirely onto interbank transactions. Instead, institutions are expected to allocate shared operating costs more evenly across all transfer services while charging only the incremental costs directly attributable to interbank transactions.
“What we’re saying is that to bring the fees down, you should spread the costs across everyone,” Tangonan said.
“And to be fair to them, what should be charged for interbank transactions are only the costs that are necessary for interbank transfers, which is how we view the switch fee,” he added.
Bank of the Philippine Islands, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Land Bank of the Philippines currently offer free transfers between accounts within the same institution.
Maya and GCash, meanwhile, have slashed their transfer fees to P10 from P15.
Tangonan said the central bank would first hear the explanations of the institutions before determining whether any supervisory action is warranted
“The initial discussions may not be made public yet because, you know, we’re all working toward the same goal,” he also said.