Why is Maya likely to keep its transfer fee?
Free bank transfers are quickly becoming the norm. Maya, however, appears prepared to sit this one out. At least for now.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has spent years trying to make digital payments cheaper as it encourages Filipinos to move away from cash. Its latest push came through Circular No. 1238, which introduced new rules requiring electronic fund transfer charges to be based on costs.
Banks responded quickly. As of July 24, nearly all universal and commercial banks in the BSP’s transfer-fee table were already offering both InstaPay and PESONet transfers free to individual customers.
The fintechs have been more reluctant.
Maya cut its InstaPay transfer fee from P15 to P10 in July, but stopped there. GCash, GrabPay, and several other electronic money issuers continue to charge as well.
So when Rappler caught up with PLDT executives this week, we asked what exactly stands in the way of taking Maya’s fee all the way down to zero.
The answer, at least from PLDT’s side, is that Maya simply is not built like a traditional bank.
Different economics
Jinggay Nograles, PLDT head of investor relations, said the key difference lies in costs.
“If you look at a bank versus a digital financial platform like Maya, the cost structure of a bank and the cost structure of a fintech firm like Maya is quite different,” Nograles told Rappler during the briefing.
Maya is more than a digital bank. Its ecosystem spans a consumer wallet, merchant acquiring, payments, lending and banking, businesses that are still scaling and require technology and infrastructure spending. This makes it far different from, for example, a bank that’s had more than 175 years to fortify its revenue streams and customer base. (READ: Why exactly did BPI make transfers free?)
The P10 charge then is more than a little fee from PLDT’s perspective. Nograles said transfers remain “one of the pillars of revenues” for Maya even as its other businesses grow. Recall too that Maya achieved profitability just last year, and with an IPO on a horizon, compromising its revenue story is the last thing it would want to do.
“Maya needs to be a going concern,” she said. “Looking at that particular revenue stream, it does make sense for Maya to keep that P10 fee.”
PLDT’s reading is also that Maya is already complying with the BSP. Circular No. 1238 does not require transfers to be free. The BSP itself has since clarified that what it requires is cost-based pricing.
“So, they’re complying with BSP,” Nograles told Rappler in an exclusive interview. “The other banks are providing more than what the BSP is asking.”
Now, a little context on why we were asking PLDT about Maya in the first place.
Maya may no longer be a PLDT subsidiary, but the two companies have a deep history. Maya grew out of Voyager Innovations, which was once the digital innovation arm of PLDT and Smart. PayMaya itself was previously described as the group’s digital financial services arm.
Voyager was once a subsidiary of the PLDT group before outside investors came in. In 2018, PLDT began bringing in private equity giant KKR, Chinese tech giant Tencent, and eventually the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, diluting its ownership below 50% while remaining the single largest shareholder. Voyager eventually evolved into today’s Maya, spanning its wallet and payments business as well as Maya Bank.
The relationship remains close. PLDT and parent First Pacific together own roughly 40% of Maya Innovations Holdings, while PLDT continues to recognize its share of Maya’s earnings. PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan is also chairman of Maya and regularly comments on its strategy, from profitability and competition with GCash to plans for an eventual IPO.
But the BSP still has questions
Maya itself is saying much less.
“As requested by the BSP, Maya has already submitted the required position on Circular No. 1238. We have no further comment at this time,” the fintech giant told Rappler on Friday, August 14.
The industry groups it belongs to have been more vocal.
The Digital Bank Association of the Philippines (DiBA PH) has welcomed the BSP’s clarification that Circular No. 1238 is a cost-based framework rather than a zero-fee mandate. Maya Bank is part of DiBA PH, whose president is Maya Bank president Angelo Madrid.
FinTech Alliance PH has similarly argued that providers should be able to recover legitimate costs needed to maintain secure and reliable financial services. Maya is also represented there: Madrid sits on the alliance’s 2026 board.
That clarification gives Maya more room to defend a non-zero fee. It doesn’t, however, automatically settle whether P10 is the right number.
The BSP has been asking Maya, GCash, and other institutions to explain the costs behind their charges. Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said in July that the central bank was reviewing their submissions, stressing that the same pricing framework applies to banks and e-wallets regardless of their different business models.
When Rappler chatted with Tangonan again on July 29, he remained mum on where that review is currently headed, saying discussions with the e-wallets were still ongoing.
So is Maya’s P10 fee staying? Unless a regulator intervenes, it seems to make good business sense for the still-burgeoning fintech player to keep it that way. – Rappler.com
