In an effort to increase coin circulation nationally, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and its retail partners recently installed Coin Deposit Machines (CoDM) in various mall outlets throughout the country.
The initiative aims to persuade the public to conveniently deposit their unneeded coins at exchange facilities that are conveniently positioned in a few malls.
BSP Governor Felipe Medalla (left) together with Robinsons Retail Holdings president and CEO Robina Gokongwei-Pe (right) while trying one of the coin deposit machines.
“Through the CoDM project, the BSP aims to address the artificial coin shortage in certain areas of the country and help ensure that only fit and legal tender currency is readily available for public use,” the BSP stated in a press statement.
The project, the central bank added, shall also promote the usage of digital payments and further the BSP’s advocacy of promoting financial inclusion by offering Filipinos the option of crediting their deposited coins to an e-wallet.
CoDMs now available in various mall outlets
Thanks to the BSP’s collaboration with SM Retail, Inc., Robinsons Supermarket Corp., and Filinvest Lifemalls Corporation, four machines are now available for depositors.
Two of these machines are located at the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) in Pasay, one is now installed at Robinsons Place Ermita in Manila, and one is available at Festival Supermall in Muntinlupa.
The BSP will review the experiment a year after it has been launched to decide whether or not it can be expanded to other areas, and whether more machines will be required to handle more depositors and idle coins.
The CoDM scheme will enable customers to conveniently deposit legal tender coins using the machines, with equal amounts to be instantly credited to the consumers’ GCash e-wallets.
For over-the-counter transactions, coin depositors at SM MOA and Festival Mall will also be given the choice to have the value of their coins redeemed in the form of SM shopping vouchers.
The crediting of an e-wallet or conversion into a shopping voucher will not incur any transaction fees. On the other hand, partner stores will receive the deposited fit coins to satisfy their coin needs for in-person payment transactions.
GCash chosen as official Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) partner
For its initial run, the mobile e-wallet GCash, which had 77 million users as of March 2023, has been designated as the project’s sole electronic money issuer (EMI) partner.
The customer’s cellphone number or e-wallet account number must be entered into the CoDM to complete the transaction in order to get the deposited funds into their account.
The least amount needed to credit money to GCash, according to the central bank, is $1.00, while the maximum amount is determined by the depositor’s GCash wallet limit.
The BSP said in another press statement that they are also collaborating with Maya, another e-wallet, so they may be integrated into the initiative as well and provide users with more options.