The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has suspended its operations and transactions of its payments and settlements, and the trading of the peso-US dollar, among other things, due to typhoon “Ulysses.”
The BSP also announced late in the morning of Thursday that it will not be receiving cash deposits from banks or withdrawals at its Security Plant Complex (SPC) in Quezon City.
All work at the BSP is likewise suspended on Thursday.
“In view of work suspension at the BSP due to typhoon ‘Ulysses’, the following services are suspended today: cash deposits and withdrawals at the SPC; PhilPaSS operations; trading of peso-US dollar; and monetary operations,” said the BSP in an advisory.
BSP’s monetary operations refer to the buying/selling of government securities, acceptance of fixed-term deposits, foreign exchange swaps, and the use of other monetary instruments.
PhilPaSS or the Philippine Payment and Settlement System, is BSP’s a real time gross settlement system for the processing and settlement of interbank high value payment transactions.
Typhoon “Ulysses” closely followed super typhoon “Rolly” (Goni), considered one of the more powerful cyclones of 2020. “Rolly” mostly devastated the region of Bicol and some parts of Calabarzon, while “Ulysses” made landfalls in Quezon province but unlike “Rolly” it hit Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon with its strong winds and flash floods.
For the first time since the tropical storm “Ondoy” natural disaster of 2009, a typhoon once again caused the Marikina River to swell and flood the city, baranggays and subdivisions of Marikina, and surpassing the 21.5-meter “Ondoy” water level at 21.9 meters as of 9:30am, Thursday. Thousands of residents, including in Provident Village, Marikina – the same location hardest hit by “Ondoy” 11 years ago – had to be evacuated with the rising water level.