BSP to service cash withdrawals on Wednesday

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The central bank’s payments and settlements office will be operational on Wednesday, a nonworking holiday, to allow banks to refill their automated teller machines (ATM) with cash.

This comes after two days of heavy rains and flooding, which forced the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) payments and settlements office to close down. Financial markets have also been closed all week due to bad weather that has paralyzed nearly all of Metro Manila.

“The BSP will service cash withdrawals of banks tomorrow (Wednesday), a public holiday,
to help banks replenish their ATM units,” BSP Deputy Governor and
officer-in-charge Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said in a statement Tuesday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 90 percent of all ATMs in Metro Manila still had enough cash to service deposits and remained in operation in spite of the heavy flooding on Monday and Tuesday.

But to ensure that the public had enough cash to get them through the rest of the week, the BSP decided to serve cash withdrawals by banks, which are not usually done on holidays, Espenilla said.

“The payments and settlements office of the BSP will also operate tomorrow to settle interbank ATM transactions,” Espenilla said.