Public outcry over CB’s rules for exchanging of banknotes
CURRENCY exchanges, busin - es se sand exp ats were left angry and confused following a warning that the Central Bank would neither accept nor exchange inkstained foreign banknotes.
An announcement late last month declared: “Any foreign currency banknotes which are out of circulation, perforated or portions missing scorched or partly burned, stained by ink, paint and/or chemicals are defined as mutilated currency notes and will not be accepted or exchanged by our bank.”
Çatalköy resident Sheila Owens contacted Cyprus-Today after being caught out days later when sterling banknotes obtained from her bank were refused by an exchange bureau and later a supermarket “bec - ause they had writing on them”.
She added: “Everyone should be aware that they are still being given out and, I suspect, funnelled into cash machine s. My friends had the same experience at a Lefkoşa exchange bureau with notes they had got from a cash machine. They are not being taken out of circulation, just passed around.”
G ir ne exchange bureau owner Toygan Ö zel said: “Most countries accept two-thirds of a banknote and I have even exchanged a note with only half a serial number at one UK bank.
“After the announcement,
the banks refused to accept any notes with ink stamps or handwritten numbers from my office and I was ready to take legal action. Despite a [clarification] by the Central Bank, the high street banks are still refusing and one even rejected a note with a crease in it.”
Mr Özel took photographs of a bundle of banknotes from the Central Bank bearing their own ink stamps to prove his point, adding: “Summer is coming. Some of the money the tourists bring is in a pretty bad state, but it’s still money and who will say no?”
He added: “The last weeks have been a chaotic nightmare and your readers should also be aware that the new [plastic] banknotes should not be left in the sun or in your car this summer as they will wrinkle!”
Head of the board of the Banking Union Olgun Önal reiterated that ink-stamped banknotes would be accepted following protests by the public and exchange bureaux owners.
Adile Unvan, director of the tellers’ department at the Central Bank told Cyprus Today yesterday: “We are not rejecting notes with writing or ink stamps, just damaged notes which must be taken back to their bank of origin if they are torn, perforated, scorched or burnt, damaged by paint or chemicals or have any portion missing.”