BSP pushes drive on clean banknotes, coins
Published Apr 9, 2019 12:00 am
By Lee C. Chipongian
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has stepped up its campaign to disseminate its Clean Note and Coin Policy (CNCP) to all Filipinos to discourage misdeeds that deface, mutilate and destroy the country’s currency, both banknotes and coins.
MB file photo.
These are considered criminal acts and are punishable by a fine of not more than P20,000 and/or imprisonment of not more than five years.
BSP Managing Director Josefa Elvira E. Ditching-Lorico of the Currency Management Sub-Sector, said that the BSP is currently looking for strategic partnerships with prominent organizations to improve its information campaign with regards to currency-related matters.
One of these organizations that had committed to support the CNCP is the Bankers Institute of the Philippines Inc. (BAIPHIL). The BSP said Ditching-Lorico “is optimistic that the partnership will succeed in its mission to reinforce positive change in Filipinos in handing Philippine banknotes and coins.”
Ditching-Lorico said the BSP is also asking all banks to support the CNCP which encourages people to turn over their dirty, torn and heavily crumpled notes to banks that then turn them over to the central bank.
The BSP, she added, “enjoins the banks and the general public to ensure that the life of notes and coins is extended, by deterring unacceptable practices such as stapling and excessive folding of banknotes.”
She further encouraged banks to “deposit or exchange on a regular basis unfit banknotes and coins with the BSP.”
Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice President Irene DL. Arroyo, also former president of BAIPHIL, said the CNCP partnership with the BSP will “protect the integrity of the Philippine currency, inform the public of the features of genuine notes and coins, and (should help) develop the habit of using only clean notes and coins.”
BAIPHIL President Dom B. Gavino Jr. said they will closely work with the BSP on a regular basis to “jointly provide public information campaigns and currency exchange in areas found to have the most soiled and unfit notes and coins.”
The BSP has adopted rules for a stronger compliance to the CNCP and also charges banks’ service fees in dealing with its cash department such as transactions involving new/fit banknote deposits, unfit banknote deposits, and mixed banknote deposits.
Charging the banks a service fee improves circulation of new or fit banknotes as well as retire unfit notes, or "dirty money" -- these are banknotes that are mutilated and hardly recognizable as legal tender.
The BSP consider banknotes as fit notes when it meets the following requirements: clean notes such that the prints are clear and “genuineness is obvious”; notes without writing and/or heavy creases; and notes that can maintain their upright position when held at the mid portion of one of the shorter borders. Unfit notes are banknotes that do not qualify as fit notes while mixed banknotes are deposits which is a combination of fit and unfit notes in a bundle.
Banks are also “enjoined” to accept unfit notes from the depositing public while they should also bring in non-mutilated coins “without handling fees or charges” and then to re-circulate such coins. In the meantime, coins that are corroded should be withdrawn from circulation.
Last Saturday, the BSP said that they have arrested two individuals for currency mutilation with the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation. The BSP on its own, is vested with police authority to investigate, make arrests, and conduct searches and seizures in accordance with law, for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the currency.
MB file photo.
These are considered criminal acts and are punishable by a fine of not more than P20,000 and/or imprisonment of not more than five years.
BSP Managing Director Josefa Elvira E. Ditching-Lorico of the Currency Management Sub-Sector, said that the BSP is currently looking for strategic partnerships with prominent organizations to improve its information campaign with regards to currency-related matters.
One of these organizations that had committed to support the CNCP is the Bankers Institute of the Philippines Inc. (BAIPHIL). The BSP said Ditching-Lorico “is optimistic that the partnership will succeed in its mission to reinforce positive change in Filipinos in handing Philippine banknotes and coins.”
Ditching-Lorico said the BSP is also asking all banks to support the CNCP which encourages people to turn over their dirty, torn and heavily crumpled notes to banks that then turn them over to the central bank.
The BSP, she added, “enjoins the banks and the general public to ensure that the life of notes and coins is extended, by deterring unacceptable practices such as stapling and excessive folding of banknotes.”
She further encouraged banks to “deposit or exchange on a regular basis unfit banknotes and coins with the BSP.”
Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice President Irene DL. Arroyo, also former president of BAIPHIL, said the CNCP partnership with the BSP will “protect the integrity of the Philippine currency, inform the public of the features of genuine notes and coins, and (should help) develop the habit of using only clean notes and coins.”
BAIPHIL President Dom B. Gavino Jr. said they will closely work with the BSP on a regular basis to “jointly provide public information campaigns and currency exchange in areas found to have the most soiled and unfit notes and coins.”
The BSP has adopted rules for a stronger compliance to the CNCP and also charges banks’ service fees in dealing with its cash department such as transactions involving new/fit banknote deposits, unfit banknote deposits, and mixed banknote deposits.
Charging the banks a service fee improves circulation of new or fit banknotes as well as retire unfit notes, or "dirty money" -- these are banknotes that are mutilated and hardly recognizable as legal tender.
The BSP consider banknotes as fit notes when it meets the following requirements: clean notes such that the prints are clear and “genuineness is obvious”; notes without writing and/or heavy creases; and notes that can maintain their upright position when held at the mid portion of one of the shorter borders. Unfit notes are banknotes that do not qualify as fit notes while mixed banknotes are deposits which is a combination of fit and unfit notes in a bundle.
Banks are also “enjoined” to accept unfit notes from the depositing public while they should also bring in non-mutilated coins “without handling fees or charges” and then to re-circulate such coins. In the meantime, coins that are corroded should be withdrawn from circulation.
Last Saturday, the BSP said that they have arrested two individuals for currency mutilation with the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation. The BSP on its own, is vested with police authority to investigate, make arrests, and conduct searches and seizures in accordance with law, for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the currency.