USAID E-PESO ACTIVITY Final Report February 2021 Prepared for the United States Agency for International Development by Chemonics International Inc. under Contract No. AID-492-C-15-0001. The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Contents Acronyms…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………..3 Project Overview and Introduction…………………………………………………………6 Project Achievements and Major Accomplishments………………………………………...8 SUB PURPOSE 1: Rapid Adoption of E-Payments in Financial Systems…………………….8 SUB PURPOSE 2: Infrastructure for E-Payments Expanded………………………………...24 SUB PURPOSE 3: Enabling Environment for E-Payments Improved………………………..32 SUB PURPOSE 4: Gaps in Broader E-Payment Ecosystem Addressed……………………..47 Covid-19 Response………………………………………………………………………….56 Integration of Crosscutting Issues and USAID Forward Priorities…………………………63 Gender Equality, Female Empowerment, And Disability Action………………………63 Policy and Governance Support………………………………………………………..63 Public Private Partnerships (PPP)………………………………………………………66 Stakeholder Participation and Involvement……………………………………………67 Targets and Indicators (M&E)……………………………………………………………….68 ANNEX 1: Press Coverage and Mentions…………………………………………….……82 ANNEX 2: Summary of Results to Date by Key Indicator………………………………....84 ANNEX 3: Institutions with PESONet and/or Instapay-Enabled Products Available on their Internet and/or Mobile Channels……………………………………..126 ANNEX 4: Institutions Connected to PESONet’s and/or InstaPay’s Clearing Switch Operators (CSO)………………………………………………………………128 ANNEX 5: Results of Women Entrepreneurs Trained under the IDMTP………………...131 ANNEX 6: Leverage from Partners………………………………………………………...132 ANNEX 7: Banked Campaign Indicators…………………………………………………...133 ANNEX 8: Banked Campaign Press Releases……………………………………………....137 ANNEX 9: ReliefAgad Press Releases…………………………...………………………….138 ACRONYMS ACH Automated Clearing House ATM Automated Teller Machine BAP Banker’s Association of the Philippines BIR Bureau of Internal Revenue BRD Business Requirements Document BSFI BSP Supervised Financial Institutions BSP Central Bank of the Philippines BTCA Better Than Cash Alliance BTr Bureau of Treasury CCT Conditional Cash Transfer CDI Cities Development Initiative DBM Department of Budget and Management DBP Development Bank of the Philippines DILG Department of Interior and Local Government DevCon Developers Connect Philippines DoF Department of Finance DSWD Department of Social Welfare and Development DTI Department of Trade and Industry eBIRForm Electronic BIR Tax Filing Form EFT Electronic Fund Transfer eTPSCert Electronic Tax Software Provider Certification ETRACS Enhanced Tax Revenue Assessment and Collection System GPH Government of the Philippines GRC Governance, Risk, and Compliance KOICA Korea International Cooperation Agency LGU Local Government Unit MOU Memorandum of Understanding MSME Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise MVP Minimum viable products NATCCO National Confederation of Cooperatives NRPS National Retail Payment System OTOP One Town One Product Pag-IBIG Home Development Mutual Fund 1 | USAID/E-PESO PROJECT Final Report (January 2021) PCHC Philippine Clearing House Corporation PEPPOL Pan-European Public Procurement Online PFG Partnership for Growth PPMI Philippine Payments Management, Inc. PPP Public Private Partnership QR Code Quick Response Code RBAP Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines RPT Real Property Taxes SSS Social Security System SuG Start-up group TRISD Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department TSP Tax Service Provider TWG Technical working group WE Women entrepreneurs W-GDP Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development USAID/E-PESO PROJECT Final Report (January 2021) | 2 The "e-Bayad" e-Payments Fair was organized by various LGUs and E-PESO to raise awareness about e-payments. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The principal goal of the USAID/E-PESO Activity is to help transition the Philippine economy from cash/checks to electronic payments for broader-based economic growth and financial inclusion. The project has achieved this goal during its period of performance from March 18, 2015 to February 17, 2021. From 1% share in 2015, e-payments usage has increased to 10% based on the December 2019 report of the Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA). USAID/E-PESO has accomplished sustainable initiatives that strongly positions the Philippines to even greater adoption of e-payments. On improving the enabling environment for e-payment usage (Component 3), USAID/E-PESO assisted the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in formulating the National Retail Payments System (NRPS) to establish a governance and regulatory framework for a safe, reliable, efficient and interoperable retail payments system. The project also provided technical assistance to the BSP in formulating related policies on the establishment of the Payments System Management Body (PSMB) that gave birth to the Philippine Payments Management Inc., on the implementation of the settlement security accounts to eliminate settlement risks for real-time transactions and other policies related to anti-money laundering. These successful and game-changing reforms propelled the wide adoption of e-payments services under the NRPS to 34.5 million transactions valued at Php 531 billion for the month of December 2020 alone since these services were launched starting November 2017. Moreover, these reforms make it easy for innovative digital payments providers to launch new digital payments services in the market to promote competition, efficiency and better customer experience. To help boost the cybersecurity capability of the BSP, USAID/E-PESO conducted a cybersecurity policy review, capacity building and compliance monitoring and with the findings that, while current BSP regulations on cybersecurity are in compliance with the cyber resiliency framework of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the cybersecurity readiness of the financial institutions as a whole 3 | USAID/E-PESO PROJECT Final Report (January 2021) have room for improvement. Monitoring the complex compliance of the financial institutions to the cybersecurity policies led the BSP to decide to implement the Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance System or GRC regulatory technology (or reg-tech) system to the banking industry. To address demand side issues in cybersecurity, USAID/E-PESO, in partnership with BSP and PPMI, co- created a cybersecurity awareness program and launched a cybersecurity awareness campaign. USAID/E-PESO also conducted two assessment studies to inform policy formulation on further boosting usage of e-payments especially by businesses. As the business segment lags behind the government and individual segments in digital payments adoption, USAID/E-PESO conducted an assessment on the root causes behind the problem. It pointed out that revenue regulations requiring businesses to keep hardcopies of invoices and official receipts (ORs) were keeping the businesses in checks/cash. Hence, a recommendation to implement an e-invoicing and e-OR framework in the country would solve the issue and gain some other major benefits. The assessment was very well received and referenced by the BSP, BIR, PPMI and the payments industry. It also led to a follow-on assessment to see how BIR may implement the PEPPOL e-invoicing framework in the Philippines. E- invoicing and e-OR will be critical to the digital economy as it enables B2B e-commerce. On supporting the expansion of e-payment infrastructure (Component 2), USAID/E-PESO provided policy formulation support to BSP on establishing automated clearing houses (ACH) as a component of the e-payments governance structure under the NRPS. These policies helped the payments industry establish the PESONet ACH for batch electronic credit transfers and InstaPay ACH for low-value real- time credit transfers. Upon the establishment of the ACHs, the clearing switch operators (CSOs) were commissioned in accordance with the NRPS. Many banks and non-bank financial institutions participated and launched their front-end infrastructure that connected to the CSOs’ back-end infrastructure. USAID/E-PESO also supported the BSP, PPMI and the payments industry in launching the eGovPay digital bills payment system. Lastly, USAID/E-PESO worked with BSP and a representative group of financial institutions to help them establish a shared cash agent network that will multiply the number and the reach of financial access points most efficiently to onboard customers and service the cash deposit and withdrawal of more customers especially those in remote areas. On driving e-payments adoption by government (Component 1), USAID/E-PESO assisted the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), through policy formulation support and development of financial literacy modules, in transitioning the accounts where the beneficiaries receive their social grants from limited-purpose reloadable electronic gift cards or “cash cards” to fully functional transaction accounts which can be used to access financial services such as digital payments, savings, credit, investments and insurance for deeper financial inclusion. Once fully implemented by DSWD, about 4.5 million conditional cash transfer (CCT) beneficiaries would become capable of using digital payments.