#InstaPay fees

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) clarified that it never required banks and e-wallets to waive digital fund transfer fees, despite issuing Circular No. 1238 to make transfer fees reflect actual costs. BSP implemented Circular 1238 last July 4, 2026, requiring that any gap between intrabank and interbank transfer fees only reflect the cost of routing a transaction through a payment network. Circular 1238 states that its pricing mechanism should "uphold fairness across end-user groups." This means electronic payment fees should stay lower than fees for manual or over-the-counter transactions. He explained that banks can absorb zero fees since they earn from lending and insurance, while e-wallets rely more heavily on transaction fees to stay afloat, including services for unbanked communities in remote island barangays. “Compliance does not require zero fees, nor does it limit off-us P2P electronic fund transfer fees to switch cost alone, and FAQ No. BDO Unibank has removed transfer fees for InstaPay and PESONet transactions made through the BDO Online and BDO Pay apps. Because of that , a number of banks ended up waiving their transfer fees, not really surprising. Read more in our articles including "BSP clarifies bank transfers need not be free" and "BDO waives InstaPay, PESONet transfer fees".