Replacement of old peso bills extended up to June 30 – BSP

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has extended anew the deadline for the exchange or replacement of old peso bills by another three months as 284 million New Design Series (NDS) banknotes worth P19.2 billion have not yet been replaced.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the Monetary Board approved the extension of the deadline for the exchange of NDS to New Generation Currency (NGC) bills to June 30 instead of March 31.

This was the second extension granted by the BSP as it was first extended from the original end-December deadline to March 31.

“This is in response to public clamor for a longer period of exchange of NDS banknotes,” he said.

After the extended deadline, the NDS bills would lose their value and could no longer be exchanged. The old design banknotes were no longer accepted in day-to-day transactions in January last year but could still be exchanged in banks and BSP offices.

As of Feb. 28, Guinigundo said a total of 284 million pieces of NDS banknotes worth P19.2 billion have not yet been exchange accounting for 8.6 percent of the total volume of 3.3 billion pieces of banknotes amounting to P983.3 billion in circulation.

Guinigundo said the extension would also affect overseas Filipino workers.

He revealed about 2,796 OFWs from 104 countries registered their NDS holdings amounting to P30.5 million from October last year to March 22 this year. Of this number, 480 registered their NDS banknote holdings during the first extension.

The BSP started circulating the NGC bills in the market in January 2016 replacing the NDS banknotes launched in 1985.