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In the Philippines, there is no Paypal for some reason. And there has been an movement that I believe was initialized by blogger J. Angelo Racoma petitioning to have Paypal in the Philippines. But I think the reason is not just that Paypal does not like the Philippines, but simply Paypal will have a harder time integrating with the Philippine banking system. And the time and effort they will put in, may not be their priority right now as they look at the land area and total number of possible users of the system and might prioritize larger area countries that translate to larger populations and possible users as well.

I came over the US in Aug 2004 and tried Paypal over here. I think one reason why Paypal is easily implemented in other countries is because their banking system is just so wired together.

In the US, at the bottom of every check, is a list of numbers, that includes the routing number. And this routing number can easily point to any bank account regardless of bank in the US. And with this setup already in place, Paypal integrates well with any bank in the US where every bank also has their own online banking system.

I think the Philippines has really improved over the years and I myself have 2 bank accounts where I used online banking, but unlike in the US, all banks are interconnected with the routing number that serves like an address where funds will be deposited.

And with Paypal, you easily move funds back and forth from your Paypal account to your bank account and vice versa. It is an extension of your bank in a way. Which is also nice since if Paypal has no funds, you cannot pay. And if your bank account has no funds or your credit card has no credit, no funds get in. But once their is funds in Paypal, a payment can be made, thus you are sure that Paypal will have the funds with the funds are verified before hand. And from the seller’s side, any payment you receive from Paypal, is most of the time, money right away right after payment since approval, clearing and fraud was already done before hand by Paypal. When the money is already with Paypal, it is already good as negotiable cash.

So if ever Paypal will be in the Philippines at the soonest possible time, I see it either impossible to happen if all the banks are still not interconnected, or Paypal will have to choose one carrier bank in the Philippines which will be the official bank. Or better yet, Paypal should just team up with Bancnet or Megalink instead. I am sure the Philippines’ programmers can make something really secure. Just looking at the logins of Bancnet and Citibank in the Philippines, your passwords are actually clicked so there is no keylogging possible. Bancnet uses compiled Java applets so code cannot be seen and Citibank uses input boxes with numbers so you need to click you pin and not type it in. And the numbers randomly change position every pageload, so even screen coordinate recorders will have a hard time. And here in the US, almost every bank here just has a input box.

Anyway, I will still support J. Angelo’s movement, to push Paypal and see a solution. If ever I am correct that they are not prioritizing the Philippines because of the less land area that translate to possible less users, I think they are wrong. The Philippines has one of the most active Internet communities around the world. Just ask Friendster and Yahoo Messenger how many Filipino users are on their system. To support this movement, sign up on PaypalNow.com.ph.

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