Philippines Keeps the Cash Circulating During COVID, and Saves on Costs

To ensure adequate supply of cash during the pandemic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) outsourced 62.2% of banknotes from foreign printers in 2020, printing only 34.7% locally.

This is in contrast to what is considered ‘normal times’, when BSP prints most of the country’s banknotes requirements. In 2019, for example, it produced 65.7% of its banknotes and outsourced 34.3%.

According to the recently-published 2020 Annual Report, it delivered 3.685 billion banknotes in the year. This figure included 655 million of the enhanced New Generation Currency or eNGC banknotes, which were launched last July with improved security threads for the 100 up to 1,000 piso denominations, SPARK® Live for the 500 and 1,000 notes and tactile marks for the visually-impaired across all denominations. The 20 piso banknote, meanwhile, is transitioning to a coin, which was also launched last year.