The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) welcomes the issuance released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which prioritizes the PhilID and ePhilID in the list of accepted IDs in financial transactions.

In Memorandum No. 2024-006 issued on 16 February 2024, BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) were reminded to ‘adopt enhanced measures to ensure the broad acceptance of the PhilID in physical card or other recognized formats, including the ePhilID, as a valid and sufficient proof of identity and age, subject to authentication, in all financial transactions.’

The issuance covers all BSFIs providing financial products and services such as banks and remittance centers.

For authentication, financial institutions can use PhilSys Check. Instead of relying on handwritten signatures that can be easily forged, PhilSys Check utilizes the unique digital signature of the registered person embedded in the QR code feature of the PhilID and ePhilID. 

Scanning the QR code through PhilSys Check via https://verify.philsys.gov.ph/ using the web browser of a computer, laptop, or smartphone allows the verification of the authenticity of the PhilID or ePhilID. 

The new BSP release is in relation to a previous issuance, Memorandum 2022-044, which enjoined all BSFIs to honor and accept the ePhilID as sufficient proof of identity. It also closely follows the issuance of Memorandum Circular 2024-014 by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), wherein local government units (LGUs) were enjoined to put the PhilID and ePhilID on top of the list of accepted IDs in transactions, including availing services and applying for benefits from government programs.

“We, at the PSA, express our appreciation for the continued support of institutions in the acceptance of PhilIDs and ePhilIDs,” said
PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis S. Mapa, PhD, National Statistician and Civil Registrar General. “In the same way that we encourage registered persons to utilize their PhilID or ePhilID in their transactions, we also urge our relying parties to honor the IDs issued by the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) as valid proof of identity in their establishments.” 

As of 23 February 2024, a total of 48,415,248 PhilIDs have already been delivered to registered persons across the country. 

In addition, a total of 45,439,566 ePhilIDs have already been issued, which can be presented as valid ID in transactions just like the PhilID.