More Filipinos are using e-money as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it has collected over P1 billion from its coin deposit machines (CoDMs) this month.

Since the CoDMs were launched in June last year, the BSP said over 260,000 pieces of coins deposited by the public already amounted to P1,008,889.49 as of 11 October.

The CoDMs allow the public to exchange their coins either for e-money into their e-wallets or shopping vouchers.

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan reported digital transactions accounted for 52.8 percent of all monthly retail payments last year, exceeding the BSP target of 50 percent for the period. The total transaction value reached P6.1 trillion.

Target: 70% digital deals

For this year, the BSP aims to increase the share of digital transactions to 70 percent of all retail payments.

The CoDMs are part of the BSP’s financial inclusion initiatives to enable more Filipinos to use digital payments as a convenient method, while also encouraging them to own bank accounts by introducing them to e-wallets which also feature savings and small loans.

“This will make it more convenient for Filipinos to deposit their idle coins, helping recirculate them back into the economy while promoting cashless transactions,” BSP said in a statement on Thursday.

Currently, the machines can be found at 25 major malls in Metro Manila, including SM Malls, Robinsons Malls and Festival Mall in Muntinlupa City.

BSP said it will add another 25 CoDMs outside Metro Manila.

“We were supposed to test the initial 25 machines for two years, but there has been clamor for the machines. It has been a success that the machines become full of coins within a few hours or half of the day,” BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.

She shared that the BSP is looking at Cebu, Davao, Naga City in Camarines Sur, Baguio City in Benguet, and Pampanga as new locations for the CoDMs.