By Ashley Manabat | Correspondent
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is reminding the public that their old peso bills will be worthless after December 31, 2015, if they fail to swap them with new banknotes.
In a report from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) last week, the BSP is urging the public to swap their old peso bills, called New Design Series (NDS), with the New Generation Currency (NGC).
Ma. Lourdes Laconsay, senior research specialist of the BSP branch here, said the NDS banknotes can still be used for paying, buying and other transactions requiring the use of cash up to December 31, 2015.
But from January 1, 2016 until December 31, 2016, the NDS banknotes can no longer be used in day-to-day transactions to pay for goods and services, she said.
During this yearlong period, the public can still exchange the old notes into the NGC through financial institutions—universal, commercial, thrift, rural and cooperative banks and BSP’s branches across the country—at face value and for free.
For overseas Filipinos who cannot exchange their old banknotes within the prescribed period, they may register online starting October 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, through the BSP web site (www.bsp.gov.ph).
Laconsay said starting on January 1, 2017, old bills that have not been traded will no longer have fiscal value and can no longer be exchanged at BSP or any BSP-authorized agent bank.
She explained that demonetizing old banknotes is in line with the practices of central banks across the world, which normally change their currency designs every 10 years.
She also said “demonetization has something to do with security and the drive against counterfeiting.”
In the case of the Philippines, the NDS banknotes have been in used since 1985, or for 30 years already, according to the PIA report.