Banks confronted with rush on crisp new banknote supplies

Taiwan-based news network TVBS claimed, however, that half of ATMs were unable to deliver cash, stressing that new NT$1,000 bills caused the machines to malfunction as they were thicker and stick together more easily.

“We have handled a lot of new banknotes from the Central Bank in prevision of the Chinese New Year, but so far we haven’t had any problems with the new bills,” an employee from The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Ltd., told The China Post.

“It’s just that lots of people want to change their old bills,” she added.

Seven commercial banks islandwide started Jan. 31 to exchange old bank notes with newly minted paper currency to people, who wish to give out red envelopes for Chinese New Year.

NT$100 notes are hot items before the Lunar New Year holidays because red is considered a lucky color in Chinese culture.

The Central Bank of China (CBC) said it has made available nearly NT$400 billion for the public to exchange old NT$1,000, NT$500, and NT$100 bank notes.

“New banknotes must be aired properly before being installed into ATMs,” Shin Kong Commercial Bank’s spokesperson Kao Fong-yi said.

She added that ATMs will be properly refilled during the traditional holiday season, but noted that her bank did not encounter any of the problems described in the TVBS report that afternoon.

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