https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Bank_of_the_Philippine_Islands
BPI was established on August 1, 1851 as the "El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II" (lit. Spanish-Filipino Bank of
Isabel II), named after the queen of Spain, Isabella II, the daughter of King Ferdinand VII. The bank was the second
Philippine bank during the Spanish era after a bank was founded by Francisco Rodriguez, a Filipino Quaker based
in London, in 1830.
The royal decree establishing the Banco Español-Filipino also gave it the power to print Philippine currency, the first
time the Philippine pesowas printed in the country; before 1851, a multitude of currencies were used, most notably
the Mexican peso. They were originally called Philippine peso fuerte (PF), or "strong pesos". First printed on May 1,
1852, they were reedemable at face value for gold or silver Mexican coins. The first deposit with the bank was also
done on that day by a man named Fulgencio Barrera. Three days later, a Chinese man named Tadian became the
first borrowing client of the bank after the bank discounted to him a promissory note amounting to ten thousand pesos
fuertes.
On September 3, 1869, following a revolution which overthrew Isabella II, the name was changed to Banco Español-
Filipino. In January 1892, the bank moved from the Royal Custom House in Intramuros to the new business district
of Binondo after it found out that Intramuros was becoming "economically inactive". It moved to 4 Plaza Cervantes,
which was at that time a prime property owned by the Dominicanfriars.
The first branch of Banco Español-Filipino outside Manila was opened in Iloilo City on March 15, 1897. However, the
idea to set up branches outside Manila was formulated as far back as the 1850s, with the first branch planned to be
opened in Bacolor, the capital of Pampanga at the time. But by then, Iloilo and other provinces in Panay became
more productive than Pampanga in the sugar industry, hence the move to open the first branch in Iloilo.
Following the cession of the Philippines to the United States following the signing of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the
bank changed from a Spanish institution to a Philippine one. On January 1, 1912, a decision by the shareholders of
Banco Español-Filipino changed the name to the present Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) or Banco de las Islas
Filipinas in Spanish. The basis for the name change was Republic Act No. 1790, passed on October 12, 1907, which
permitted the bank to change its name. The bank was also privatized during the American colonial period.
Following World War II, BPI was actively involved in the post-war reconstruction of the Philippines. In 1949, with the
establishment of the Central Bank of the Philippines (now the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), BPI lost the right to issue
Philippine pesos, a right it had since the Spanish colonial era and during the American colonial period.
In December 31, 1969, Ayala Corporation, which had been affiliated with BPI since its establishment in 1851, became
the dominant shareholder of BPI and eventually made BPI into the flagship of Ayala's financial entities. [5]
Starting in the 1970s, BPI has been involved with many mergers and acquisitions. The first merger occurred in 1974
with BPI's acquisition of the People's Bank and Trust Company. Major notable acquisitions include Commercial Bank
and Trust Company in 1981, CityTrust Banking Corporation in 1996 and Far East Bank and Trust Company in 2000.
In 1982, BPI became a universal bank, and in 2000, became the Philippines' first bank assurance firm, being the first
Philippine bank to offer insurance services after acquiring the insurance companies of the Ayala Corporation, the
parent company of the Ayala Corporation. Within that year, BPI also founded the BPI Direct Savings Bank, an
Internet bank, which launched BPI into 21st century banking.
On February 14, 1986, BPI established its own interbank network, Expressnet.
In October 2015, BPI launched the "Make the Best Things Happen" campaign which empowers Filipinos to make the
best of their life happen by providing innovative and accessible financial solutions. [6]
On the morning of June 7, 2017, a data processing glitch affected BPI clients making their account balances
incorrect.[7] Some clients have either negative balance[8] or increased amount of money in their account.[9] The error
was fixed in the evening[10] but on the next day, June 8, BPI suspended electronic services because incorrect
balances occurred again.[11] The services were restored once more on the evening of the same day upon fixing the
defect.[12]
History of money
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_peso

Pre-colonial coinage[edit]

The trade the pre-colonial tribes of what is now the Philippines did among themselves with its many
types of pre-Hispanic kingdoms (kedatuans, rajahnates, wangdoms, lakanates and sultanates) and
with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter
however later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in
many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos,
small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient
peoples of the Philippines, and gold barter rings.[5]

Piloncitos, a type of coin used by the pre-colonial peoples of the

archipelago.

Spanish colonial period[edit]

The Spaniards brought their coined money when they came in 1521 and the first European coin
which reaches the Philippine Islands with Ferdinand Magellan's arrival was the teston or four-reales
silver coin. The teston became the de facto unit of trade between Spaniards and Filipinos before the
founding of Manila in 1574. The native Tagalog name for the coin was salapi ("money").
Pre-decimal coinage[edit]
With the establishment of Spanish Manila in the late 16th century, the Spanish introduced the
silver real de a ocho, already known across the Spanish Empire colloquially as the peso, which was
divided into 8 reales and further subdivided into 4 cuartos or 8 octavos.
The monetary situation in the Philippine Islands was chaotic due to the circulation of many types of
coins, with differing purity and weights, coming from mints across the Spanish-speaking world.
Spanish coins circulated freely with those from the newly independent Spanish colonies including
reales fuertes, reales de vellón, peseta columnaria, peseta sencilla, pesos de
minas, tomines, ducados, maravedis among others. Value equivalents of the different monetary
systems were usually difficult to comprehend and hindered trade and commerce.
Decimal coinage[edit]
An attempt to remedy the monetary confusion was made in 1848, with the introduction of the
decimal system in 1857 under the second Isabelline monetary system.[6] Overseeing the conversion
was Fernándo Norzagaray y Escudero, governor general in the period 1857-60.
Conversion to the decimal system with the peso fuerte (Spanish for strong peso) as the unit of
account solved the accounting problem, but did little to remedy the confusion of differing circulating
coinage. Renewed calls for the Philippine Islands to have a proper mint and monetary system finally
came to fruition in September 1857, when Queen Isabel IIauthorized the creation of the Casa de
Moneda de Manila and purchase of required machinery. The mint was inaugurated on March 19,
1861.
Despite the mintage of gold and silver coins, Mexican and South and Central American silver still
circulated widely.

The Isabella peso or peso fuerte

The Isabelline peso, more formally known as the peso fuerte, was a unit of account divided into 100
céntimos (equivalent to 8 reales fuertesor 80 reales de vellón). Its introduction led to the Philippines'
brief experiment with the gold standard, which would not again be attempted until the American
colonial period. The peso fuerte was also a unit of exchange equivalent to 1.69 grams of gold, 0.875
fine (0.0476 XAU), equivalent to ₱1,390.87 (refers to the modern peso; as of September 2015).[7]
Coin production at the Casa de Moneda de Manila began in 1861 with gold coins (0.875 fine) of
three denominations: 4 pesos, 2 pesos, and 1 peso. On March 5, 1862, Isabel II granted the mint
permission to produce silver fractional coinage (0.900 fine) in denominations of 10, 20, and
50 centimos de peso. Minting of these coins started in 1864, with designs similar to the Spanish
silver escudo.
The Alfonso peso, the Spanish-Filipino peso[edit]
The currency in the Philippines was standardized by the Spanish government with the minting of a
silver peso expressly for use in the colony and firmly reestablishing the silver standard as the
Philippine monetary system. The coin, which was to be later known as the Spanish-Filipino peso,
was minted in Madrid in 1897 and bore the bust of King Alfonso XIII. The specifications of the coin
was 25 grams of silver .900 fine. This configuration was also used in the creation of the Puerto Rican
provincial peso in 1895 giving both coins the equivalency of 5 pesetas.[8]
The new monetary standard finally established the peso as 25 grams silver, 0.900 fine (0.7234
XAG), equivalent to ₱942.535 modern pesos of as of 22 December 2010.[9]
The Spanish-Filipino peso remained in circulation and were legal tender in the islands until 1904,
when the American authorities demonetized them in favor of the new US-Philippine peso.

El Banco Español-Filipino, 10 pesos (1896)

Revolutionary Period[edit]
Asserting its independence after the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898,
the República Filipina (Philippine Republic) under General Emilio Aguinaldo issued its own coins and
paper currency backed by the country’s natural resources. The coins were the first to use the
name centavo for the subdivision of the peso. The island of Panay also issued revolutionary
coinage. After Aguinaldo's capture by American forces in Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901, the
revolutionary peso ceased to exist.

American Colonial Period

After the United States took control of the Philippines, the United States Congress passed the
Philippine Coinage Act of 1903, established the unit of currency to be a theoretical gold peso (not
coined) consisting of 12.9 grains of gold 0.900 fine (0.026875 XAU), equivalent to ₱2,933.07 modern
pesos of as of 22 December 2010.[10] This unit was equivalent to exactly half the value of a U.S.
dollar [11] and maintained its purchasing power until the opening day of the Central Bank of the
Philippines in 1949.
The act provided for the coinage and issuance of Philippine silver pesos substantially of the weight
and fineness as the Mexican peso, which should be of the value of 50 cents gold and redeemable in
gold at the insular treasury, and which was intended to be the sole circulating medium among the
people. The act also provided for the coinage of subsidiary and minor coins and for the issuance of
silver certificates in denominations of not less than 2 nor more than 10 pesos.

US Administration 50 centavos silver coin minted in San

Francisco in 1918.

Commonwealth Period
When Philippines became a US Commonwealth in 1935, the coat of arms of the Philippine
Commonwealth were adopted and replaced the arms of the US Territories on the reverse of coins
while the obverse remained unchanged. This seal is composed of a much smaller eagle with its
wings pointed up, perched over a shield with peaked corners, above a scroll reading
"Commonwealth of the Philippines". It is a much busier pattern, and widely considered less
attractive.

1944 Philippines five Centavo coin

 1945 ten-centavo coin

World War II[edit]

In 1942, the Japanese occupiers introduced fiat notes for use in the Philippines. Emergency
circulating notes (also termed "guerrilla pesos") were also issued by banks and local governments,
using crude inks and materials, which were redeemable in silver pesos after the end of the war.
The puppet state under José P. Laurel outlawed possession of guerrilla currency and declared a
monopoly on the issuance of money and anyone found to possess guerrilla notes could be arrested.
Because of the fiat nature of the currency, the Philippine economy felt the effects of hyperinflation.
Combined U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth military forces including recognized guerrilla units
continued printing Philippine pesos, so that, from October 1944 to September 1945, all earlier issues
except for the emergency guerrilla notes were considered illegal and were no longer legal tender.

Independence

Republic Act No. 265 created the Central Bank of the Philippines (now the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas) on January 3, 1949, in which was vested the power of administering the banking and credit
system of the country. Under the act, all powers in the printing and mintage of Philippine currency
was vested in the CBP, taking away the rights of the banks such as Bank of the Philippine Islands
and the Philippine National Bank to issue currency.[12]
In a repeat of Japanese wartime monetary policy, the government defaulted on its promises to
redeem its banknotes in silver or gold coin while promising to maintain the two-to-one peso to dollar
parity. This decision, compounded with the deliberate overprinting of fiat banknotes, resulted in the
peso dropping in value by almost 67% against the US dollar within the first three hours of opening
day. The government effort to maintain the peg devastated the gold, silver and dollar reserves of the
country.
By 1964, the bullion value of the old silver pesos was worth almost twelve times their face value and
were being hoarded by Filipinos rather than being surrendered to the government at face value. In
desperation, then-President Diosdado Macapagal demonetized the old silver coins and floated the
currency. The peso has been a floating currency ever since, which means that the currency is a
physical representation of the domestic debt and whose value directly tied to people's perception of
the stability of the current regime and its ability to repay the debt.[13]
In 1967, The National language was based on the Tagalog language according to Executive Order
No. 134 requiring all coins and banknotes to be changed to Tagalog.[14] Consecutively, the currency
terminologies changed from centavo and peso to sentimo and piso. However, centavo is more
commonly used by Filipinos in everyday speech.
From the opening of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 1993, successive governments have
continued to devalue the currency to lower the accumulated domestic debt in real terms, which in
December 2005 reached ₱4.02 trillion.
Currently circulating one Piso coin
 50 Philippine Centavo (1964).

Current economy[edit]
Based on the current price of gold, the Philippine peso has now lost 99% of its original 1903–1949
value. As of September, 2015, it takes ₱1,390.87 modern pesos to equal the intrinsic purchasing
power parity of the 1903–1949 Philippine Commonwealth peso, as per its legal definition:
12.9 grains of pure gold (or 0.026875 XAU).[15]

Bills https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Philippine_peso

New Generation Currency series (current)[edit]

In 2009, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced that it will launch a massive redesign for the
banknotes and coins to further enhance security features and to improve durability.[8] The members
of the numismatic committee included Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo and
Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, chairman of the National Historical Institute. Designed by Studio 5 Designs
and Design Systemat, the new banknotes' designs features famous Filipinos and iconic natural
wonders. Philippine national symbols will be depicted on coins. The BSP started releasing the initial
batch of new banknotes in December 2010. On December 16, 2010, the new design for Philippine
banknotes were released. The font used for lettering in the banknotes is Myriad, while the numerals
are set in the Twentieth Century font.[9] On December 16, 2016, BSP announced that they will launch
sets of banknotes bearing President Duterte's signature. The BSP initially released five million
pieces of the new 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000-peso bills with Duterte's signature. As for the 200-
pesos bills, only two million pieces were released because of lower demand for this denomination.[10]
The New Generation Currency series will be the only circulating set of notes by July 1, 2017.[6]

New Generation Currency series

Image Dimens Design Year
Main
Val ions of
Colou
Obverse Reverse ue (millim Obverse Reverse First
r
etres) Issue
Manuel L.
Banaue Rice
Quezon,
Terraces; Paradoxurus
Declaration
160 × Ora hermaphroditus
₱20 of Filipino as the 2010
66 nge philippinensis (palm
national
civet); Cordilleras weave
language, Malac
design
añang Palace
Taal
Sergio
Lake in Batangas; Caran
Osmeña, First
160 × x
₱50 Red Philippine 2010
66 ignobilis, maliputo(giant
Assembly, Leyte
trevally); Batangas
Landing
embroidery design
 Manuel A.
Roxas, Old
Bangko Sentral 2010,
ng Pilipinas Mayon 2016
(BSP) building in Volcano in Albay; butand (stro
₱10 160 × Viol
Intramuros, ing, Rhincodon typus, nger
0 66 et
Manila, whale shark; Bicol textile mauv
Inauguration of design e
the Third color)
Philippine
Republic
Diosdado P.
Macapagal, EDS
A People Power Chocolate
2001, Aguinaldo Hills in Bohol; Tarsius
₱20 160 × Gre
Shrine in Kawit, syrichta, Philippine 2010
0 66 en
Cavite, Barasoai tarsier; Visayas weave
n design
Church in Malolo
s, Bulacan
Corazon C.
Subterranean
Aquino, Benigno
Underground
S. Aquino,
River in Puerto Princesa,
₱50 160 × Yell Jr., EDSA
Palawan; Tanygnathus 2010
0 66 ow People Power I,
lucionensis, blue-naped
Benigno Aquino
parrot; Southern
monument
Philippines cloth design
in Makati City
José Abad
Santos, Vicente
Tubbataha Reefs
Lim, Josefa
Natural Park in Sulu
Llanes Escoda;
Ligh Sea; Pinctada maxima,
₱10 160 × Centennial
t to South Sea pearl; 2010
00 66 celebration
Blue Mindanao design for
of Philippine
Tinalak (Ikat-dyed
independence;
abaca)
Philippine Medal
of Honor
For table standards, see the banknote specification table.