State-run Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) has onboarded 7.2 million
unbanked Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) registrants as of 31 December
2021, in line with its contribution to advance greater financial inclusion in the
country.
The onboarding is a result of LANDBANK’s co-location strategy with the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) at hundreds of registration sites nationwide for the PhilSys
Project, where qualified unbanked registrants are provided with their own
transaction accounts free-of-charge and with no initial deposit requirement.
Of the 7.2 million onboarded national ID registrants nationwide, 1.6 million are from
Central Luzon, 1.4 million from Eastern Mindanao, 1.2 million from Eastern Visayas,
and 1.1 million from Western Visayas.
“LANDBANK remains committed to reaching more of the unbanked population in
support of the National Government’s financial inclusion agenda. We have so far
made significant headway in bringing unbanked PhilSys registrants into the formal
banking system, as we continue our strategic and fruitful partnership with the PSA,”
said LANDBANK President and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo.
The carded PhilSys registrants have already utilized their LANDBANK prepaid cards
for various transactions amounting to P86.1 million. These include loading cash into
their accounts, withdrawals at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), and making
payments via point-of-sale (POS) terminals and online, among others.
Unbanked PhilSys registrants may sign up for LANDBANK transaction accounts once
they complete the ongoing PhilSys Step 2 registration process, which covers
validating supporting documents and capturing biometrics information.
Meanwhile, the state-run Bank clarified anew that the LANDBANK prepaid cards
being issued to unbanked national ID registrants are not pre-loaded with
government subsidy or ‘ayuda’, in response to fake news circulating in social media.
LANDBANK reaffirms its support to the National Government’s target of providing at
least one bank account for every Filipino household equivalent to 13.5 million
accounts throughout the whole co-location partnership with the PSA.
