Benise Balaoing

Bank of the Philippine Islands n Makati on January 19, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

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BPI in Makati

Andrea Taguines

ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- A digital advocacy group urged the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) on Wednesday to rethink its decision to remove the ‘Load E-Wallet’ service on its mobile banking app for Gcash and Maya.This means that users will no longer be able to directly top up their e-wallets via GCash or Maya, at the lower transaction fee of P10. Instead, they will have to transfer funds using InstaPay, which charges P25 per transaction.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/2/11/bpi-app-to-stop-load-e-wallet-service-1842" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BPI app to stop &#x27;Load E-Wallet&#x27; service for GCash, Maya</a></div>Digital Pinoys said this would result in higher costs for users.“If a user tops up their e-wallet five times a month, they would have previously paid only P50 in transaction fees. With InstaPay, that cost increases to P125—a 150 percent increase in fees,” said Digital Pinoys National Campaigner Ronald Gustilo.Although there is still a cheaper option for GCash users, specifically the “Cash In” with BPI feature on the e-wallet app, which only incurs a P5 convenience fee, Gustilo noted that this requires the linking of online banking accounts to e-wallet platforms— something that many consumers are reluctant to do.“Natatakot sila na baka pag nagkaroon ng unauthorized transaction, madamay din yung kanilang BPI account,” he said.Gustilo also said that since BPI and GCash are part of the Ayala Group of companies, the waiving of transaction fees should be doable.“Pwede naman talagang i-waive yun for the convenience of your customer base e diba?”“Tingin ko ginagawa naman ito ng BPI para i-promote yung sarili nilang e-wallet, yung Vybe. Kaya tinatanggal nila yung diretsong paglo-load doon sa dalawang leading e-wallet providers,” he said.But in a statement, BPI insisted that it is just following industry regulations.“This is to align with the National Retail Payment System Framework established by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) via BSP Circular 980 and Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI) Advisory No. 2024-1104-020. PPMI is an accredited Payment Systems Management Body under the National Payment Systems Act,” it said.Still, for Digital Pinoys, this does not help the Philippine government’s push for digitalization and the banking sector’s goal to encourage more people to create bank accounts.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/3/6/bsp-confident-it-hit-digitalization-target-for-retail-payments-1706" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BSP confident it hit digitalization target for retail payments</a></div>

A group urged BPI on Wednesday to rethink its decision to remove the ‘Load E-Wallet’ service on its mobile banking app for Gcash and Maya.

A group urged BPI on Wednesday to rethink its decision to remove the ‘Load E-Wallet’ service on its mobile banking app for Gcash and Maya.

BPI urged to reconsider removal of ‘load e-wallet’ feature for Gcash, Maya

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BPI urged to reconsider removal of ‘load e-wallet’ feature for Gcash, Maya

Andrea Taguines,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 12, 2025 06:59 PM PHT

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