Several Philippine banks and electronic wallet operators have eliminated or adjusted their digital transaction costs in response to a central bank mandate requiring financial institutions to lower retail fund transfer charges. The fee adjustments follow the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issuance of Circular No. 1238 and Memorandum No. M-2026-025, which require market-based pricing mechanisms for person-to-person electronic fund transfers. Central Bank Guidelines and Regulatory Compliance Under the central bank framework, if an institution allows free transactions within its own platform, any fee applied to external transfers must reflect only the actual interbank network switch cost. The BSP estimates this …