Philippines Central Bank aims for 70% financial inclusion among Filipino adults

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, said the launch of the updated National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028 has broadened financial inclusion objectives of the government. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the NSFI emphasizes the importance of developing market-enabling and innovation infrastructure. He said the launch of more deposit accounts and electronic money (e-money) products will help the central bank achieve its goal to have 70% of Filipino adults part of the formal financial system by 2023. Monetary authorities estimate that from 2020 until the third quarter of 2021, about 20 million unbanked Filipino adults have been included in the formal financial system through the opening of basic deposit accounts (BDA) and active e-money accounts. Diokno said these additional numbers brought the number of banked adult Filipinos to 41 million, or about 53% of the total adult Filipinos to date.