Sending money from a Bank of the Philippine Islands account to a rival bank or an e-wallet will cost nothing beginning July 1, after the Ayala-led lender confirmed it is permanently dropping the fees it previously charged on InstaPay and PESONet transactions.
The waiver applies across the bank’s digital channels — the BPI mobile app, BPI Online, the VYBE e-wallet, BanKo, and the small-business platform BizKo. Until now, customers routing transfers through the app paid P10 for each InstaPay transaction and P50 for every PESONet transfer.
BPI estimates the change will reach more than 9.5 million enrolled app users, covering both active and dormant accounts. Clients under BPI Preferred, BPI Gold, and BPI Private Wealth, along with verified VYBE users, already had these charges waived under existing account perks.
“Making interbank transfers free is a meaningful step toward enabling our customers to move their money more freely, while strengthening adoption of secure and convenient digital banking,” BPI president and chief executive officer Jose Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco said. The bank tied the decision to its 175th anniversary, which falls on August 1.
The two systems handle different kinds of payments: InstaPay moves funds in real time, while PESONet processes transfers in scheduled batches. Customers who want the zero-fee rate on the app will need to install the updated version, released June 25, before sending money.
Regulators set the stage for the shift. Under BSP Circular No. 1238, Series of 2026 — signed June 17 by central bank Governor Eli Remolona Jr. — supervised financial institutions are pushed toward fair, market-based pricing on person-to-person electronic transfers, and are required to back their fees with documented cost analyses. As BusinessWorld reported, the circular holds that charges for cross-institution transfers should not differ materially from in-house transfer rates, with any gap reflecting mainly the switch cost of routing a payment through the network.
Whether BPI’s decision forces competitors to follow remains an open question. Rappler noted that Finance Secretary Frederick Go has previously pressed for digital transfer fees to drop to as low as P2 to P5 rather than disappear entirely — a target BPI has now overshot by eliminating the charges altogether.
