A virtual dollar could become the vehicle for cheaper overseas remittances under one idea now on Finance Secretary Frederick Go’s desk. Technology specialists he consulted have floated using a stablecoin such as USDT to move funds across currencies before they land as pesos in Filipino accounts.
“They’re proposing to use a virtual dollar or a crypto like the USDT for example as a medium to be able to send money from overseas currencies to Filipino peso,” Go told ABS-CBN News.
The proposal emerged from meetings Go held with the Fintech Alliance and outside technology experts, who shared his view that digital payment tools offer the clearest route to trimming costs and smoothing transfers. He is now awaiting word from banks and other financial institutions on whether they will act on his call to cut the fees.
The stakes, he argued, are personal for millions of families. Charges on money sent from abroad can eat up between six and 10 percent of each transfer, a burden he wants eliminated in the same way several local banks have already reduced their own transfer costs.
“For the overseas Filipinos, they’re paying up to 10 percent. These are blood, sweat, and tears of our fellow kababayans abroad. And they have to pay those kinds of usurious fees. I think that’s really something we really really should work on,” he said.
Go has framed lower transaction costs as a consistent goal, praising the Bank of the Philippine Islands for permanently scrapping charges on transfers to other banks and e-wallets.
“I’ve always been trying to advocate to lower these transaction fees and obviously I’m very happy with what BPI did. My goal has always been simple: digital payments should be fast, secure, convenient and affordable,” Go said.
Beyond the private sector, the finance chief has drawn on his role as chairman of the Land Bank of the Philippines to press the state lender into cutting its own person-to-person charges, part of a wider effort by the Department of Finance to align payment fees across public and private channels.
