BSP to Fast Track Creation of National ID Database

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) aims to fast-track the making of the National ID database to be used for good governance and financial inclusion.

In a budget hearing at the Senate, the Private Sector Member of the Monetary Board Bruce J. Tolentino mentioned that the printing of the National ID is also being fast-tracked due to this significantly adding to a rise in bank-account ownership of citizens in the country.

Based on Tolentino’s numbers, an estimated 29% of adult Filipinos owned formal financial accounts in 2019. This number has since increased in 2021 to 56%, more than doubling the number during the past two years.

Tolentino has said that “The pandemic pressures saw to it that e-money ownership accounts have almost quadrupled and, working with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), we are now at the BSP: speeding up the printing of the IDs as well as the processing of the datasets that will ensure that those who now have the biometrics can be issued the ID and the ID number as programmed by the Neda [National Economic and Development Authority],”

In this same Senate hearing, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan noted that the National ID registration paved the way for the creation of accounts in the LandBank of the Philippines from zero to now 8.3 million.

Secretary Balisacan has also mentioned that the National ID will provide access for farmers to get their official IDs and will increase their access to social services.

The goal of the National ID is to cover 50 million by the end of 2022.

Source: Business Mirror