The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) once again called on Filipinos to consider giving digital cash or e-aguinaldo instead of dispensing cold cash as monetary gift during the holiday season.
The BSP has been releasing a similar advisory every December since 2020.
In a statement Wednesday, Dec. 20, the BSP assured the public that there are enough banknotes to go around and traditionally, the BSP prints more banknotes around this time since the beneficiaries of cash gifts prefer fresh bills.
The BSP said it “continues to issue more fresh banknotes to enable the public to exchange old for crisp ones through their banks. Additionally, the BSP continues to issue lower-denomination banknotes amid unusually high demand for these.”
At the same time, the BSP is urging Filipinos to “exercise vigilance against parties exchanging banknotes for a fee," stressing that "exchanging banknotes through banks is free of charge.”
In encouraging the public to consider using digital or electronic money in sending cash gifts to their godchildren, friends, and family members, BSP said that “sending e-money is a safer and more convenient way of gift-giving for both the givers and the recipients.”
As of end-September, there are 324 million e-money accounts in the Philippines. “These accounts may be conveniently used for paying digitally for goods and services as well as for monetary gifts,” said the BSP.
The promotion of e-aguinaldo is part of BSP’s push for the wider adoption of digital payments, financial inclusion and an efficient flow of funds.
Digital channels include interbank fund transfers through InstaPay and PESONet, electronic money issuers that are more commonly known as e-wallets, and QR Ph, which entails code scanning and offers consumers faster, easier, and cheaper payment options.
QR Ph is based on the Europay-Mastercard-VISA (EMV) standard, the global standard for secure payments.
Based on historical data, currency demand will start to rise in October until December. In demand are usually P1,000, P100, P50 and P20 banknotes. Coins such as P1 and 25-sentimos also have increased demand.
The wide use of internet banking and e-money transactions for domestic remittances, e-commerce, bills payment, and other immediate low-value payments contributed to the growth of InstaPay transactions.
InstaPay is a real-time, low value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is most useful for remittances and e-commerce. PESONet and InstaPay are part of the BSP’s National Retail Payment System, which was launched in 2017.
As of end-2022, about 42.1 percent of all payment transactions are already in digital form. The BSP wants at least 50 percent of all payment transactions as e-payments by the end of this year.