Although billions of pesos worth of transactions are conducted at automated teller machines (ATM) daily, the system remains reliable, a top official from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier clarified that while glitches happen at particular machines as they did the past few days, the system remains able to deliver.

“It’s reliable. In fact, we’re always reminding the banks that they should really pay attention and reload (their ATM). They monitor (them) closely,” Fonacier told reporters.

She acknowledged that downtime sometimes happen but stressed the various banks are able to recover quickly because of close monitoring.

According to her, the BSP consistently reminds the banks of their responsibility as the demand for cash and turnover increases during the Christmas season.

“Definitely, the volume of cash withdrawals is high, especially during Christmas season, as demand and turnover for cash also increases,” Fonacier said partly speaking in Filipino.

Also, the BSP executive said the banks’ digitalization initiatives help speed up transactions as to allow the sending and receiving of money directly from one account to another, reducing the need to withdraw cash in the process.