JAKARTA - Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data show combined InstaPay and PESONet transfers reached ₱13.18 trillion from January to May. The total compares with ₱9.13 trillion in the same five-month period of 2025, giving a year-on-year increase of about 44.4% based on the central bank’s current monthly tables.
InstaPay accounted for ₱6.56 trillion across 3.43 billion transactions from January to May. PESONet accounted for ₱6.62 trillion across 52.5 million transactions. The two systems were close in transfer value, but InstaPay processed about 98.5% of combined transaction volume.
The May figures also rose from a year earlier. InstaPay processed 750.8 million transactions worth ₱1.47 trillion in May, compared with 359.5 million transactions worth ₱930.56 billion in May 2025. PESONet processed 10.6 million transactions worth ₱1.33 trillion in May, compared with 9.5 million transactions worth ₱1.05 trillion a year earlier.
The two payment rails serve different uses under the BSP’s National Retail Payment System. The central bank says PESONet is a batch electronic fund transfer credit payment scheme that can function as an electronic alternative to paper-based checks. InstaPay handles real-time low-value transfers for amounts of up to ₱50,000.
The BSP says, “InstaPay is a real-time low-value EFT credit push payment scheme for transaction amounts up to P50,000.” It says the system is designed for small-value payments, including retail purchases, toll fees, tickets and e-commerce transactions.
InstaPay’s growth came mainly through volume. Its January-May transaction count rose to 3.43 billion from 1.16 billion in the same period of 2025. PESONet’s transaction count rose to 52.5 million from 46.7 million, with value rising to ₱6.62 trillion from ₱5.06 trillion.
The BSP’s retail payment framework puts interoperability at the center of adoption. Its NRPS page says end-users can move funds between accounts at participating BSP-supervised financial institutions, including banks and electronic money issuers. The central bank says wider use of electronic payments can raise transaction volume and help lower consumer costs through economies of scale.
PESONet remains the channel for bulk transfers. The BSP says PESONet payment instructions are processed in bulk and cleared at batch intervals, and each payee receives the full value in the account within the same banking day if the instruction is sent before the cut-off time.
