High-Yield Savings Philippines 2026: Why MP2's 7.12% Beats Every Bank

The post-CMEPA savings stack has one ranking that matters in 2026, and most listicles still publish the pre-July-2025 version. Pag-IBIG MP2’s FY2025 dividend of 7.12% per annum, declared on 27 February 2026 alongside a record PHP 64.34 billion payout (BusinessMirror, Manila Bulletin), sits outside the 20% final withholding tax that the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act (RA 12214) put on every other peso of interest income from 1 July 2025.

Then the banks moved. Between 1 and 5 June 2026 the whole PH deposit market repriced down: CIMB reset its MaxSave ladder and cut GSave on 1 June, and Tonik took 100 basis points off its entire Time Deposit ladder on 5 June, its second cut in a little over two weeks. Tonik’s 12-month Time Deposit now pays 5.5% p.a. (gross), which is 4.4% APY (post-tax, after 20% final withholding) once CMEPA takes its cut. MP2’s 7.12% stays 7.12%.

The gap between the best unconditional bank rate and MP2 was 192 basis points in May. It is now 272. For MP2-eligible savers willing to lock five years, MP2 is not just the winner; it is the winner by a widening margin.

The 2026 verdict, ranked by post-tax APY

The only ranking that matters backs CMEPA’s 20% out of every bank rate, leaves MP2 gross (because it is tax-exempt), and asks which shelf actually pays. The table below is rendered live from our deposit-rate ledger, not typed into the page: when an issuer reprices, this changes.

MP2’s 7.12% tax-free sits above every row in that table. Tonik’s 12-month TD is the best unconditional bank rate on a post-tax basis, at 4.4% APY (post-tax, after 20% final withholding), and it is now 272 basis points behind MP2. One row in the table reads higher: Maya’s Time Deposit Plus shows 3%–6% p.a. (gross) at the top, or 2.4%–4.8% APY (post-tax, after 20% final withholding), whose ceiling clears Tonik. That ceiling is conditional. You earn the boost only by hitting a declared target amount and holding to the maturity date, and Maya could not confirm the rate on our 12 July 2026 sweep, so the ledger flags the row UNVERIFIED and the table carries the flag. Miss the target or the date and it reverts to the guaranteed base at the bottom of that band. Tonik’s rate is the best you get with no target to chase and no boost to forfeit. Metrobank’s Online Time Deposit is the only Big-4 product in contention, and its top band needs a PHP 10 million placement to get there.

The ranking flips with horizon. Inside 12 months MP2 disappears, because early withdrawal forfeits the headline dividend, and the Tonik 12-month TD becomes the post-tax winner by default. Beyond 12 months, MP2 leads and nothing else is close.

For the savings shelves that stay liquid, the picture is thinner:

What CMEPA changed on 1 July 2025

Before that date, a Time Deposit with a term of five years or more qualified as a long-term deposit under the NIRC and its interest was tax-free. That carve-out is what made long-term peso placements competitive with MP2 at all.

CMEPA flattened it. From 1 July 2025, interest income from bank deposits is subject to a flat 20% final withholding tax regardless of tenor: short, long, peso, dollar, savings, time deposit. Peso long-term TDs opened before 1 July 2025 keep the rate applied at account opening until their original maturity, and nothing else does. RCBC’s depositor advisory states it plainly: long-term peso time deposits were “previously exempt, now subject to 20% FWT,” and for pre-July placements, “until maturity date, you will continue to enjoy the tax rate that was applied during account opening date.”

The same law lifted the FCDU rate from 15% to 20%, which is why the dollar section below reads the way it does.

Pag-IBIG MP2: 7.12%, tax-exempt, and the catch

The Modified Pag-IBIG II (MP2) Savings Program is a voluntary 5-year savings account run by the Home Development Mutual Fund. Its FY2025 dividend was declared at 7.12% per annum, funded from fund earnings on the housing and short-term loan portfolios. Two things about that number matter more than its size.

First, it is declared, not promised. Pag-IBIG announces the rate after the year closes (27 February 2026, for FY2025) and computes each member’s share on average daily balance. There is no floor and no coupon.

Second, it is tax-exempt, and that exemption survived CMEPA. Set it against the best bank rate on the page, Tonik’s 12-month TD at 5.5% p.a. (gross), and the tax alone is worth more than a full percentage point before the headline gap is even counted.

The mechanics:

• 5-year lock-in. Each MP2 account matures five years from opening. At maturity you take principal plus accumulated dividends, or roll into a fresh account.
• Minimum PHP 500/month (2026-07), or a one-off lump. Annual ceiling ₱1,000,000/year per member (2026-07).
• Dividends paid gross. No withholding, preserved under RA 9679.
• Not PDIC-covered. Government-backed under HDMF, but not a bank deposit and not an insured one.
• Enrolment via Virtual Pag-IBIG, using an active MID number.

Compounding is the one setting worth getting right at enrolment. Dividends can be paid out annually or added back to principal to earn the next year’s dividend. Over a five-year hold the compounded option wins by a wide margin at any plausible rate, and switching later is a paperwork problem. Choose compounding unless you specifically need the annual cash.

The eligibility catch kills the deal for many foreigners. MP2 requires an active Pag-IBIG contributing membership: an employer remitting the mandatory contribution, or self-employed registration with HDMF. A 13a permanent resident with a Cebu job qualifies. An SRRV retiree with no PH income does not. A 9a tourist is excluded.

Tonik Time Deposits: the bank that still competes, for less

Tonik’s TD ladder is the only bank-side product line that clears inflation cleanly on a post-tax basis without a PHP 1 million entry ticket. It is also the product that moved most this year. Tonik’s Deposit Interest Rates page now publishes an old-rate/new-rate table, and the new column is headed effective 5 June 2026:

• 12-month: 5.5% p.a. (gross), or 4.4% APY (post-tax, after 20% final withholding) once CMEPA takes its cut
• 9-month: 5% p.a. (gross)
• 6-month: 4.5% p.a. (gross)
• 18 and 24-month: 5% p.a. (gross). The curve still inverts past 12 months, so going longer earns less.

That is a 100 basis point cut across every tenor, and it landed a little over two weeks after an earlier cut from 8.0% to 6.5%. Tonik’s own page is unusually honest about it: the old column reproduces the rates we captured on 20 May 2026 exactly, which is how we know both captures were right.

Each TD caps at ₱250,000/TD (2026-07) and you can run five concurrently, so the Tonik ladder ceiling is ₱1,250,000 (2026-07). Peso deposits are PDIC-insured to ₱1,000,000/depositor (2026-07). Tonik posted consolidated positive cash net income in Q1 2026, the first standalone Philippine digital bank to do so (BusinessWorld, 13 May 2026), which retires the survivability objection older comparison articles leaned on.

The honest catch is pre-termination, and it is milder than most write-ups claim. Per Tonik’s own FAQ, breaking a TD after the cooling-off period does not zero your interest: you earn the Tonik Account rate (1.00%) instead of the TD rate, and you still pay withholding tax and Documentary Stamp Tax on it. Inside the cooling-off window (about six days from opening), you get the principal back with no interest and no DST. Either way the TD rate is gone, so treat each rung as locked, but do not expect a total wipeout.

The ladder strategy: open one 12-month TD per quarter. After four quarters one matures every three months, giving a rolling liquidity stream while the average balance keeps earning 4.4% APY (post-tax, after 20% final withholding). Park the float in Solo Stash at 4.00% gross. For the bank-by-bank comparison and the foreigner-KYC paths, see the best digital bank comparison; for the TD ladder mechanics in detail, time deposits in the Philippines.

The Maya “15%” headline: what the math says

Maya Bank’s high-interest savings page leads with up to 15% per annum. The number is real. Its shape makes it nearly meaningless above ₱100,000 (2026-07).

Three things compress it:

1. The boost applies only to the first ₱100,000 (2026-07). Every peso above that earns the base rate, currently 3% p.a. (gross).
2. It is a monthly promo, re-run and re-tiered each month. The July 2026 ladder runs 1–31 July and has to be re-earned in August.
3. The tiers are spend-gated. 5% needs PHP 250 of bills, load, stocks, funds or payments; 10% needs PHP 25,000 of stocks, funds or QR payments; 12% needs PHP 35,000. The 13% and 15% tiers are card-approval and select-user offers, not something a saver can simply opt into.

Run the blended math on a PHP 500,000 balance, assuming you somehow hold the 15% ceiling all year:

• PHP 100,000 at 15% gross = PHP 15,000/year
• PHP 400,000 at 3.0% gross = PHP 12,000/year
• Blended pre-tax APY: 5.4%
• Post-CMEPA: 4.32%

That is the ceiling, and it still lands below a Tonik TD ladder and 280 basis points below MP2. For idle cash that cycles through Maya for bills anyway, the 3.0% base is fine. As a yield instrument for a serious balance, it does not compete. Fuller Maya analysis: Maya vs GCash.

CIMB, GSave, MariBank, GoTyme: the lower tier

CIMB runs four overlapping savings shelves and repriced most of them on 1 June 2026. GSave, the CIMB deposit that sits inside GCash, now pays 2.3% p.a. (gross), cut from 2.60% (CIMB’s own FAQ). CIMB Prime savings moved to 2.80% per annum on the same date, per CIMB’s Prime advisory, which supersedes the 3.5% figure that most 2026 comparison pages (including our own, until this update) still carry. UpSave is 2.5% on CIMB’s FAQ, undated. GSave’s practical use is what it always was: a sweep destination for idle GCash wallet balance, and the only part of GCash that is actually a PDIC-insured deposit.

CIMB Grow is the one we will not put a number on with a straight face. CIMB’s own Grow FAQ still advertises a 4.0% base, and on the same page still describes GSave’s base as 2.6% — a rate CIMB itself cut to 2.30% on 1 June. A page that quotes a superseded rate as current is not a page we will transcribe a live figure from. Confirm Grow’s rate in-app before you move money for it.

MariBank (rebranded from SeaBank on 31 July 2025) publishes 3.25% per annum on balances up to PHP 1 million and up to 3.75% above, on its own savings page. Its 3-month Upfront Time Deposit is in the ledger table above and is flagged: MariBank’s help-centre article on it no longer renders, so the 3.75% figure is our last confirmed capture, not a re-verified one.

GoTyme is a published gap. GoTyme’s own domain contradicts itself: the help centre says 3% on Go Save, undated, while other pages on the same site surface 3.5% and 4%, and its 5% announcement page is from 2023. There is no dated, authoritative GoTyme rate sheet we can read, so GoTyme is deliberately absent from our deposit ledger and we publish no rate for it here. What GoTyme is actually good for is unchanged and worth more to most foreigners than 30 basis points: its Cebu mall kiosks give you an in-person, passport-in-hand account opening when app-only KYC at Tonik or Maya rejects a foreign passport. See the open a bank account in Cebu guide.

BPI publishes its peso savings rates and they run 0.0625% to 0.125% per annum (BPI deposit rates). Big-4 savings exists for payroll inflow and ATM access, not yield. Sweep anything you do not need within a week.

The PHP 500,000 split

For a foreigner who qualifies for MP2 (active Pag-IBIG contributor, 13a or working visa) with PHP 500,000 and no near-term liquidity need:

Blended post-tax yield on that stack: about 5.64% per annum, or PHP 28,200 a year. The same PHP 500,000 parked entirely in Maya Savings while holding the 15% boost ceiling returns 4.32%, about PHP 21,600. In BPI peso savings it returns PHP 250. The split beats boosted Maya by PHP 6,600 a year and beats BPI peso savings by PHP 27,950, at the same risk profile: every peso is either PDIC-insured or government-backed.

For non-MP2-eligible savers (SRRV retiree, 9a tourist, anyone without Pag-IBIG contributions), drop the MP2 line. Two Tonik 12-month TDs at PHP 250,000 each absorb the full PHP 500,000 at 4.40% post-tax, but leave you with no buffer; opening them a quarter apart and holding PHP 50,000 back in Solo Stash gives 4.28% blended with quarterly liquidity. That is the honest ceiling for a foreigner locked out of MP2, and it is 284 basis points below what a qualifying member gets. Eligibility, not allocation, is the single biggest lever on this page.

PDIC coverage and the rebalance question

PDIC’s maximum deposit insurance coverage is ₱1,000,000/depositor per bank (2025-03), doubled from ₱500,000 (2025-03) effective 15 March 2025. It covers peso and FCDU accounts and applies uniformly across Big-4, mid-tier and BSP-licensed digital banks.

• Under PHP 1M total: one bank. Keep it simple.
• PHP 1M to PHP 2.5M: split across two or three licensed banks. Each slice stays fully insured.
• Above PHP 2.5M: ask whether bank savings is the right shelf at all. Tonik’s ladder caps at PHP 1.25M anyway, and MP2 has no PDIC cover.

MP2 sits outside the insurance frame entirely. PDIC pays claims when a covered bank fails; MP2 is a Pag-IBIG Fund contribution, not a deposit, with no insurance certificate and no claim window. The legal mechanic is government credit risk on the HDMF entity, not bank-deposit credit risk. Those are different risks, not one risk with a better label.

For a foreigner specifically, PDIC pays out in pesos regardless of the underlying account currency. A USD balance in a PH FCDU that gets force-converted at a closure peg may not return the equivalent dollars. That is one more reason serious dollars stay offshore.

USD savings in the Philippines

PH-domiciled USD savings is bad enough to state plainly. BPI’s published rate sheet puts US Dollar Savings at 0.050% per annum, with a USD 500 required initial deposit, a USD 500 minimum monthly average daily balance, and USD 500 required to earn interest at all. Then CMEPA takes 20% of it, up from 15% before 1 July 2025.

We are not going to publish figures for the other banks. BDO’s dollar-savings page timed out on every attempt on 12 July 2026, and we could not read a current FCDU rate sheet from Metrobank, Security Bank or UnionBank either. Rather than transcribe those rates from a comparison site, we leave them unverified: the BPI figure is the one we can stand behind, and there is no evidence the others are materially better.

The structural answer for dollars is offshore. A US or Singapore brokerage pays money-market yields on idle USD that are orders of magnitude above a PH FCDU rate, with no minimum and no FCDU withholding, and we deliberately do not print a rate for them here because those yields move daily and are outside what this ledger verifies. The corridor cost of moving USD is small against that gap; see sending money to the Philippines for the rails. The only case for a PH FCDU is operational: a USD landlord, a near-term USD purchase, a visa-fee buffer. For anything held longer than 90 days, offshore wins on arithmetic that a 0.05% rate cannot argue with.

One nuance worth knowing: the depositor advisories are explicit that FCDU interest of nonresidents stays exempt from the tax. A foreigner actually living in the Philippines is not a nonresident for this purpose. The foreigner tax guide covers the residency test that decides which side of that line you are on.

When MP2 is wrong for you

9a tourist visa. Pag-IBIG membership requires PH employment, self-employment or OFW status. Tourists are ineligible. Use the Tonik ladder.

SRRV retiree without PH income. SRRV alone creates no Pag-IBIG eligibility. Without registered PH-side income there is nothing to contribute against.

Cash needed inside 24 months. The 5-year lock and the reduced early-withdrawal dividend make MP2 a poor short-horizon shelf.

An established offshore portfolio earning equity returns. MP2’s 7.12% is a cash allocation, not a growth allocation. If the alternative is a global index fund, MP2 is a step down and is meant to be. The comparison MP2 wins is against PH-domiciled cash, not against equities.

The default for a qualifying mid-tenure expat with PHP 500,000 to PHP 2 million of PH-side savings is the split above: MP2 for the long-horizon core, Tonik TDs for the medium ladder, Solo Stash for the operating buffer. For the wallet layer that sits in front of all of it, Maya vs GCash handles daily spend.

The close

CMEPA reordered the stack in mid-2025, the banks repriced down in June 2026, and most coverage has caught up with neither. The tax-free 5-year Time Deposit is dead for new placements. Tonik’s best rate is 5.5% p.a. (gross), not the 8% still sitting in half the SERP. MP2’s 7.12% did not move, which is precisely why its lead over the best unconditional bank rate widened from 192 basis points to 272 without Pag-IBIG doing anything at all.

For eligible savers, MP2 plus a laddered Tonik position is the boring correct answer. For everyone else, the Tonik ladder alone still beats every wallet-adjacent savings shelf on this page by a wide margin, and the difference between a perfect allocation and a good one is rounding error against the cost of three extra apps and three extra KYC flows.

Every rate above that comes from a ledger is dated, sourced to the issuer, and re-verified on a schedule; the rows we could not re-verify are marked as such rather than quietly refreshed. That discipline is documented in the methodology, which lays out how each rate is captured, dated and re-checked. If you want to run your own numbers, the PHP savings real-return calculator does the post-tax and post-inflation math interactively.