DAVAO CITY—The United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) set the trend in electronic payment system when it established the InstaPay, the country’s first automated clearing house.
The InstaPay Service will now enable clients to transfer funds “real-time to other Philippine bank accounts through UCPB Connect, the Bank’s suite of electronic banking facilities, including Internet and mobile banking.”
InstaPay was established under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) National Retail Payment System Framework, which aims to facilitate and promote electronic payments in the country, a UCPB statement said.
Through this service, the UCPB said it would allow its clients “to instantly send and receive funds or make payments of up to P50,000 per transaction, with a service fee of only P25 per transaction.”
“The service is accessible 24/7 and eliminates the need for clients to go through the trouble of physically traveling and transacting at bank branches or payment counters,” it added.
Transactions would be possible with participating banks and e-money issuers in the Philippines, it said, and added that the fund transfer service “is geared more for retail payments such as domestic remittances, payments to service providers, e-commerce and peer-to-peer payments,” according to Charina D. Balanquit, UCPB vice president and head of the marketing group.
“As BSP Governor Espenilla said, InstaPay moves us closer toward financial inclusion by connecting Filipinos through account-to-account, instant fund transfers or payments,”
she said.
Meanwhile, the bank announced that its Mindanao Regional group was awarded by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as the Fourth Best Collecting Agent in Region 9 for generating more than P80 million collections in 2018.
It said the recognition was given to companies with the highest transactions among PhilHealth’s authorized collecting agents.
UCPB Mindanao Region Head Joel P. Javier received the award during the first PhilHealth Regional Forward on November 23, 2018, at the SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang Premiere, Davao City.
Early this year, UCPB was also recognized by PhilHealth for its 19-year partnership with the institution as an accredited collecting agent since 1999.