Taipei-Taiwan’s central bank on Thursday announced that the public will be able to exchange old bills for fresh bank notes in the run up to the Lunar New Year from Jan. 13 at designated branches of eight local financial institutions.
It is traditional in Taiwan for adults to give red envelopes containing cash to children and seniors during the New Year and people prefer to use new notes.
The central bank said old bills can be exchanged for new ones from January 13-19.
Financial institutions providing the note-exchange service include 371 bank branches of Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Chang Hwa Bank and Taiwan Business Bank.
In addition, Chunghwa Post will provide the service at 59 post offices in rural areas, as well as at 24 offices in urban areas that have banking service counters.
The central bank added that it has set up location pins of bank branches that will provide the service on Google maps which can be found via the bank’s official website, Facebook and mobile applications. These are also accessible through links to a PDF file and a QR code.
As demand is highest for NT$100 (US$3.26) bills, the central bank said each individual will be allowed to exchange a maximum of 100 notes.
The supply of notes with other values will also be limited, the bank said.
Other than providing physical notes, the central bank also urged the general public to consider using virtual transactions during the New Year to help Taiwan transition into going cashless and protect the environment.
Den Yen-dar (???), director-general of the bank’s Department of Issuance, said despite the arrival of the cashless era and mobile payments, the demand for physical cash remains unchanged.
Central bank governor Yang Chin-long (???) further added that NT$3-4 billion is allocated annually to print new bills, with NT$100 and NT$500 notes the most common.
The central bank said the average lifespan of the two notes is about two years, while NT$1,000 notes last up to four years.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel