Over four million unbanked Filipinos have been signed up by Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) by way of the national identification (ID) system.

'[T]he state lending institution has so far onboarded 4,468,249 new accounts or 47 percent of the 9,484,696 individuals who had already registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) from 884 sites in 32 provinces,' the Finance department said on Monday.

As of end-June, 1,2 million or 27 percent of those 'onboarded' had already received LandBank Agent Banking Cards (ABCs), the department continued, with 4,338 PhilSys registrants having conducted 8,099 transactions, most made in the Visayas and Central Luzon.

The cards are provided, free of charge and with no initial deposit requirement, to PhilSys applicants in areas where LandBank has co-located with the Philippine Statistics Authority for PhilSys registrations.

The cards can be used to withdraw cash at automated teller machines and point-of-sale cash-out terminals, shop online and perform other cashless transactions as well as receive government subsidies.

The cards are also contactless-enabled, allowing their use for 'tap' payments such that for the Automated Fare Collection System the government wants to roll out for public utility vehicles.

LandBank, meanwhile, also said that since November 2018 up to end-June 2021, a total of 1.6 million accounts had been opened through its Digital Onboarding System, which includes accounts opened for clients of Overseas Filipino Bank, a LandBank subsidiary that is the country's first digital-only bank.

For June alone, accounts opened reached 68,863, higher than the 67,889 recorded in May.

Transactions using its mobile banking app also increased to 47.03 million in June from 31.97 million a year earlier.