No cash? No problem at Pasig market
Shoppers at the Pasig city market may now go cashless and pay vendors for their purchases through electronic or e-payments using QR (quick response) codes.
Some 2,000 vendors at Pasig City Mega Market have joined the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG),
Pasig City is the first local government in the National Capital Region and the sixth in the Philippines to launch the program. QR code payment has been adopted by local governments in the cities of Baguio, Davao, Tagbilaran, Naga and Lapu-Lapu.
Paleng-QR Ph Plus encourages the use of the new digital technology as a convenient, safe, and efficient payment solution even for small vendors, tricycle drivers, etc.
By simply scanning a merchant’s QR code with their cellphones, customers can pay for purchases or services electronically, quickly, and conveniently.
The recent Paleng-QR Ph Plus in Pasig was led by BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto and Pasig Representative Roman Romulo.
Pasig has partnered with different financial service providers to help vendors in transaction account opening and printing of QR codes. The city government and BSP held financial literacy sessions for participants in the program.
The BSP will continue to support local governments in the implementation of the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program to boost the growth of the digital ecosystem and transaction account ownership in the country.
Paleng-QR Ph Plus is in line with the central bank’s efforts to transform half of the volume of retail payments in the country to digital form and onboard 70 percent of Filipino adults onto the formal financial system by this year under the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023.
For more information on the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program, the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is accessible on the BSP website via this link: https://bit.ly/PQPP_FAQs_E.
During the launch, BSP also conducted its Piso Caravan to enable Pasig residents to exchange old banknotes and coins for fresh bills or digital cash as part of the central bank’s Clean Note and Coin Policy and the Coin Recirculation Program.
For more information on the Piso Caravan and other public information campaigns in Metro Manila, contact the BSP GMRO at (02) 8988-4836 or e-mail gmro@bsp.gov.ph.stakeholders
Incidentally, BSP’s new rules for consumer assistance mechanism, mediation and adjudication will take effect next month, May.
Medalla said the new rules would lead to “just and speedy” determination of financial consumer complaints submitted to BSP
