No service fees for deposits, withdrawals of old bank notes

MANILA, Philippines -No service fees will be collected from banks depositing and withdrawing old bank notes until the end of 2016, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a memorandum issued last week.

Exempted from the payment of service fees are deposits of five, 10-, 20-, 50- 100-, 200-, 500- and 1,000-peso coins and bills.

The withdrawal of P200 bank notes until the end of March this year will also be exempted from service fees.

The central bank applies a P60 to P100 per bundle service fee for deposits of fit and unfit notes, and a P60 per bundle cost for the withdrawal of bills. Fit notes are those that are clean, without writing and without heavy creases.

The order was issued following the notice issued by the BSP in December last year, advising the public that it would start the demonetization process for old bank notes in circulation.

This means the public may still use the old bank notes until the end of this year, after which they will no longer be accepted for payment transactions.

Authorized banks and BSP offices, however, are open to exchanging old bank notes for the new generation currency notes until the end of 2016.

The BSP has also given overseas Filipinos abroad and government institutions holding old bank notes options on how to swap them for new ones.

As of December last year, there were 729 million pieces of the old bank notes amounting to P192 billion in circulation. They accounted for 25 percent of the total volume and about 26 percent of the total value of money currently in circulation.

The central bank in 2013 already stopped printing the old bank notes in favor of the new generation currency bank notes launched in December 2010.