Albay bank runs out of small bills few days before elections

Did you know that a local bank in Albay anticipates a shortage of smaller bills when election day is near? 

A resident from Albay said this is true. 

“Yes, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) asks for a projection on this every start of the year. But it is still the BSP that allocates the amount for each bank,” an employee said. 

According to the employee, the bank often runs out of new, smaller bills days before election day.

This midterm elections, the bank had already released small bills worth P100 million or less a week before election day. And that amount was withdrawn by at least 20 clients.

Those who did not make it requested for old bills instead, the local source said.  “In fact, yesterday many requested old small bills.”  

When asked what could be the reason for this sudden request for smaller bills, the employee said: “Vote buying?”

The employee also emphasized that this phenomenon has been taxing on the part of the bank post-election.

“We release a huge amount of money before election and after election we have to count and sort huge amounts of money, which can be laborious…And since there’s an oversupply, we also have to return the fit bills which has a charge on the bank….BSP charges a bank per box of new bills,” the local source said.

The money coming in after the elections are deposits from merchants or stores, we were told. – Rappler.com