A mobile registration push pairs the Philippine Statistics Authority’s National ID with GCash onboarding to help unbanked Filipinos open e-wallets and access digital finance.
PSA and GCash ran mobile co-location drives that helped more than 2,000 people across 25+ barangays register for the National ID and open verified GCash accounts since July 2025.
Lack of ID is a major barrier: a BSP study cited in the story found 40% of adult Filipinos remain unbanked partly due to missing documentation.
Verified National ID enables access to GCash products including lending via Fuse Financing Inc. (which had disbursed ₱362 billion to 10.5 million borrowers through end-2025).
Authority (PSA) and GCash have coordinated mobile registration and verification activities that use the National ID to remove a common barrier to joining digital finance. The initiative places PSA registration booths alongside GCash Barangay Outposts so residents can register for a National ID and immediately use it to verify a GCash account.
A Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) study referenced in the report says 40% of adult Filipinos remain unbanked in part because they lack valid identification. Without an ID, people cannot complete standard onboarding for banks or e-wallets. The PSA–GCash collaboration focuses on resolving that documentation gap at the community level.
PSA provides on-site National ID registration while GCash offers e-wallet onboarding and verification. When someone registers for a National ID through the co-location effort, they can use the newly issued ID to verify their GCash account. That verification unlocks basic digital financial services like sending and receiving money, bills payment, and access to credit products.
A PSA registration officer in Cavite, Ronnie Mallillin, is quoted explaining that people register for National IDs because they want access to GCash services. G-Xchange president and CEO Ren-ren Reyes Jr. frames the National ID as a starting point for broader participation in the digital economy: "We want every Filipino to maximize the opportunities offered by the digital economy, and it all starts with having a valid ID."
What this implies for financial inclusion
Pairing government ID registration with e-wallet onboarding addresses the upstream barrier of documentation and provides an immediate path to digital financial services. Verified accounts permit routine financial tasks, basic credit access, and business services for nano and microentrepreneurs. If scaled, the same approach could reduce the unbanked share tied to missing IDs and help the country move toward the BSP's digital payments targets.
Scaling requires sustained PSA capacity to register users, secure backend integrations for real-time ID verification, and continued outreach in areas with low documentation coverage. Privacy and security of identity data will affect public trust and uptake, and the story highlights the need for convenient, local registration points to reach those currently excluded.
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