Banks to replace old bills until Dec 2016

CEBU, Philippines - Do you still have the old bank notes in your wallet? The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has urged the public to have the old Philippine peso bills exchanged with the new ones in their banks.

The central bank is demonetizing the old banknotes or the “New Design Series” starting January 1 through December 31 this year. Demonetization is the process of removing the monetary value of a currency.

BSP Cebu acting director Leonides Sumbi, however, explained the old bills can still be used for buying goods and services in 2015 but will no longer be used as legal tender starting January 1, 2016.

But the public can have the old banknotes exchanged with the new bills called the “New Generation Currency” from January 1 this year until December 31, 2016 in universal, commercial, rural, thrift and cooperative banks.

“Starting January 1, 2016 until Dec. 31 [2016], di na ninyo magamit inyong old notes but you can still exchange it. We’re giving you another one year to go to your banks,” Lawyer Sumbi told The FREEMAN in an interview yesterday.

Starting Jan. 1, 2017, old bills that have not been exchanged will no longer have any monetary value and will be considered demonetized.

Purpose

The BSP emphasized the need to demonetize the old peso bills to side with the practice of other central banks around the world, which change their currency designs every 10 years. The design of the Philippine old bills – whose printing stopped in 2013 – has been used since 1985, that’s already 29 years.

It said the move also aims to protect the integrity of Philippine currency and boost the agency's drive against faking money. 

Sumbi also said overseas Filipino workers who still hold on to NDS banknotes – which could not be exchanged during the prescribed period -- could still replace them by registering online through the BSP website starting Oct. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2016.

OFWs will be given a registration number and will have the NDS bills replaced with the BSP within one year from the registration date, she said.

The bank official noted the new banknotes which were launched in December 2010 have new and improved security features to protect the people from counterfeiting.

The central bank said around 729 million pieces of NDS bills worth P192 billion are still in circulation, as of November last year. These bills comprise 26 of total value of banknotes currently in circulation and 25 percent of the total number. (FREEMAN)