CONSUMERS are encouraged to keep their savings in central bank-supervised financial institutions to prevent damage of their banknotes.
This is after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) facilitated the replacement of nearly P50,000 worth of hard-earned yet termite-mutilated savings of a 70-year-old ice delivery man featured in GMA Network’s Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho.
“To avoid damage caused by termites, water and other elements, the BSP encourages the public to keep their savings in BSP-supervised financial institutions where they will be safe and secure,” BSP said in a statement.
The BSP earlier issued a circular, which aims to enable Filipinos to facilitate payments and save money with ease, accessibility, convenience, through the Basic Deposit Account (BDA).
BDAs are affordable, no frills and easy to open that even those without valid IDs can apply using alternative documents or via the apps of selected banks.
These deposit accounts only require an opening deposit amount of P100 or less and have no maintaining balance nor dormancy charges, but may earn interest for depositors.
Mutilated currencies
Recently, the BSP reminded banks to accept mutilated currencies from the public.
The mutilated bills may be presented at any bank which will subsequently forward to the BSP for analysis and evaluation or they may directly bring to the BSP regional offices and branches for on-the-spot redemption if requirements are met.
“Say, you have 10 pieces of paper bills which were damaged by termites and upon evaluation by BSP, it satisfies the redemption requirements, the BSP will exchange the same amount equivalent to the 10 pieces of paper bills on the spot,” BSP Cebu bank officer Hazel Cultura told SunStar Cebu.
“However, if these paper bills incur heavy damages to the extent that it is difficult to identify its authenticity, these bills will be sent to our laboratory in Manila for further analysis and examination” she added. (JOB)