(File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Only one-fourth of all Filipinos own bank accounts that facilitate their participation in the financial system, while the rest cite the lack of funds or lack of need as their primary reasons for not having one, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the central bank said the results of its latest Financial Inclusion Survey revealed that an estimated 15.8 million Filipino adults have funds deposited with banks and other financial institutions at the end of 2017.
Representing 22.6 percent of the country’s total population, this marks only s slight improvement over the 22 percent of Filipinos who had bank accounts in the survey’s first edition in 2015.
“Ownership of an account that can be used to save money, receive salary, send or receive remittance, and pay bills is a basic indicator of financial inclusion,” the BSP said.
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Banks continue to have a higher share (11.5 percent) in account penetration than non-banks such as microfinance non-government organizations (8.1 percent), cooperatives (2.9 percent), and non-stock savings and loan associations (0.3 percent).
Only 1.3 percent of adults have an electronic money (e-money) account.
