MANILA — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has called on payment system stakeholders to help build a 24/7 real-time payment system to enhance the country’s financial infrastructure.

BSP Senior Assistant Governor Edna C. Villa raised the issue during the “2025 Peso Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Forum,” held at the central bank’s Manila head office on September 18–19, 2025, and at the North Luzon Regional Office on October 2, 2025.

“Handa na ba tayo sa 24/7 na RTGS? I encourage us to design that future together,” Villa said, addressing 350 participants representing banks, quasi-banks, nonbank e-money issuers, financial market infrastructures, and clearing switch operators that participate in the Peso RTGS.

The country’s RTGS system, PhilPaSSplus, is BSP-owned and BSP-operated, currently running from 9:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. A 24/7 operation would allow more transactions to be settled in real-time, interlink with foreign payment systems, and support economic activities such as round-the-clock remittances, cross-border e-commerce flows, and bond trading.

The forum, which marked the fourth anniversary of PhilPaSSplus, also discussed refinements to operating procedures during holidays and work suspensions, progress on the ISO 20022 Standard Harmonization Project, the 2025 customer satisfaction survey, implementation of penalties for erring Peso RTGS participants, and operational enhancements.

BSP officials and industry leaders, including representatives from BancNet, SWIFT, and the Philippine Clearing House Corporation, shared insights on strengthening the country’s payment ecosystem.

RTGS systems provide instant settlement of payments, transfer instructions, or other obligations individually on a transaction-by-transaction basis.