Indeed, the POS system in the Philippines has come a long way from its initial introduction by the Bank of the Philippine Islands in 1987, followed by Megalink in 1993 and Bancnet in 1994. Today, we have over 37,000 POS terminals serving around 30 million ATM cardholders in malls, restaurants, hotels and even small specialty shops.
The overnight call rate has stayed at nearly zero, and financial institutions have been confident about the availability of overnight funds. The amount outstanding of funds in the call money market has been basically unchanged. Interest rates on term instruments have generally been stable at the level as low as that prior to the emergence of concerns related to the Year 2000 problem.