Visa Country Manager for the Philippines and Guam Stuart Tomlinson said only 8 percent to 9 percent of all consumers’ discretionary payments are done through cards in the country.
“If $100 is spent, only $8 is used in credit or debit cards. You got 100 million population here but there’s only 3 million to 4 million credit-card holders,” he told the BusinessMirror.
He said one of the challenges faced by the card business is the lack of awareness on electronic payments. “We need to help upgrade and educate consumers on the value of using the card. We do this through partnership with banks. Once everybody migrates to EMV or the Europay, Mastercard Visa chip, all electronic payment is more secure.”
EMV is the global standard for chip-based credit and debit transactions that is deemed more secure than magnetic stripe cards. He added that more and more banks are EMV-ready and that banks are going to migrate well before the January 2017 deadline set by the Central Bank.
“In other countries, they found the EMV chip as 100-percent secure, never been skimmed, or data was never compromised. The banks here are making a very robust progress and to our vantage point, the Philippines will meet the 2017 targets,” he said. Tomlinson said there are about 38 million ATM cards in the Philippines.