InstaPay raises transfer limit to P500,000 for real-time business payments
MANILA, Philippines – Businesses can now use InstaPay to make real-time payments of up to P500,000 per transaction, opening the widely used fund transfer network to larger transactions such as B2B supplier payments, payroll, insurance claims, and loan disbursements.
InstaPay for Business raises the transaction ceiling tenfold from the regular P50,000 limit. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and allows enterprises with corporate or business accounts to send money immediately to either individual or company accounts.
There is also no limit to the number of transactions or aggregate daily value. The sending financial institution may nevertheless impose lower ceilings and set their own fees.
So far, InstaPay for Business is available through the following participating institutions:
- PNB
- Wise Pilipinas
- DCPay
- GoTyme Bank
- RCBC
Separately, industry officials said eight financial institutions had been onboarded for testing. Twelve more, which include the major players of the banking industry, had formally notified the group of their intention to participate.
“We’re confident that by 2027, everyone or almost every one of the Philippine Payments Management Inc. members will be there – big banks, small banks, and even electronic money issuers,” said Chinabank head of retail banking innovations group Manuel Tagaza, who also sits as the InstaPay steering commitee chairperson.
The service seeks to fill a longstanding gap in corporate payments, where checks and transfers subject to banking cutoffs remain common for transactions exceeding the previous P50,000 InstaPay limit.
“Till this day, check cutting is still a major business in servicing corporate payments. We’re still on the checks,” said RCBC segment head for corporate cash management Enrique Buenaflor, who led the industry working group for InstaPay for Business.
While businesses already have digital transfer options, Buenaflor said these may involve processing cutoffs, may not operate around the clock, and may provide varying confirmation times depending on the receiving bank.
“That’s the gap that we’re trying to solve,” he said in a digital payments launch event at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
For example, a small or medium enterprise ordering P100,000 worth of goods may pay its supplier immediately with InstaPay for Business through a participating bank. The supplier can confirm receipt in real time and begin processing the order without waiting for a check to clear or asking for a screenshot of the payment.
Businesses may also use the service for wholesale purchases, vendor payments, incentives, insurance claims, intercompany transfers, and loan releases.
Another potentially disruptive use case is payroll. Companies typically require workers to open accounts with a designated payroll bank, sometimes forcing employers to issue checks during the first salary cycle because accounts have not been activated or automated teller machine cards have yet to arrive.
With InstaPay for Business, an employer could instead ask a new employee for an existing bank account and send the salary directly.
He acknowledged that this may challenge banks that rely on signing entire companies and their workers as payroll clients. “Not such good news for banks who sort of wholesale their payroll, but it will make us at least more innovative,” he said. “The ultimate beneficiary is our clients.”
Total volume processed by pilot participants reached 10,808 transfers accounting for P734.32M in total value between April to June 2026.
“I’m pretty confident that InstaPay for Business will become as popular as our retail counterpart” by 2027, Buenaflor said. – Rappler.com
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