Bank employees “nervous” under pressure to exchange new small bills

As scheduled, as the Lunar New Year approaches, the demand for exchanging new small bills for lucky money will increase. Meanwhile, the limit of new small bills at banks is limited, so in addition to the responsibility of serving VIP customers, many bank employees feel pressured because they cannot handle all the requests from relatives to exchange new bills.

Thu - a bank teller in District 6, Ho Chi Minh City, said she has worked at the bank for 6 years. Her relatives thought that since she worked at the bank and had seniority, exchanging money would be easy, so they kept calling her for help these past few days. Thu herself had to explain that there was no new money yet, and the quantity was limited, so that people would understand.

"However, some people understand and don't say anything, others get angry because they think I'm not helping. There are many things to do near Tet, plus the pressure of changing to new money makes me very tired," she confided.

Thanh Nhan - an employee of a joint stock bank headquartered on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 1, also complained that last year she had to run around to arrange new stacks of money for individual customers, or relatives and acquaintances because the allocated amount of small change was very small.

"I heard that this year the bank was also allocated a very limited amount of small change, so each employee only received a few million dong. Therefore, I can only exchange for a few relatives and do not dare to accept many offers," she shared, adding that many times when she saw the incoming call, she did not dare to answer the phone because she was afraid of being asked to exchange money.

Worried that relatives will be angry, so they have to try to find some change, while they themselves have no use for it, is also the concern of many bank employees. For example, Ha Huong, a customer service employee at a large joint stock bank, said that last year, near Tet, she and several colleagues had to go looking for circulated but still new money to give to their children as lucky money.

"There is little new money so it cannot meet everyone's needs. My sisters and I have to take advantage of the opportunity to collect and exchange new money in the fund to use up some of it," Huong explained.

Talk toVnExpress, the leader of a large joint stock bank in the South, said that at this time two or three years ago, his bank received hundreds of billions of dong in new small change, but last year and this year, that number is expected to be only about half, or even less. "Therefore, the limit for each employee will be less," he said.

The State Bank recently announced that it will fully meet the cash demand during the Lunar New Year 2018. In principle, the State Bank ensures the supply of all types of money that meet the standards for circulation (regardless of old or new money); but like every year, during the Lunar New Year, the management is still interested in issuing a certain amount of new money to meet the legitimate needs of the people.

However, to meet the principle of using small denomination money reasonably and for the right purpose, and to limit the negative consequences that may arise..., this Lunar New Year, the State Bank continues to implement the policy of not putting newly printed money with small denominations from 5,000 VND into circulation.

According to this agency, not issuing new money printed during the 2018 Lunar New Year helps save about 280 billion VND, bringing the total cost reduction since implementing this policy to nearly 2,200 billion VND.

Thus, over the past 5 years, the State Bank has implemented a policy of not putting new small denomination money into circulation during Tet, for example, in 2013, new 500 VND bills were not printed, in 2014, 1,000-2,000 VND bills were printed, in 2015, 5,000 VND bills were printed, in 2016 and 2017, newly printed money with original series of 5,000 VND or less was not printed and distributed.

"We do this to avoid the situation of people's localized demand increasing before Tet holiday to spread to pagodas, causing negative reactions as well as disrupting currency circulation," said the leader of the State Bank.

In Vietnam's current currency circulation, there are denominations from 200 VND to 500,000 VND. The demand for new small denomination money often increases locally at the end of the year for going to temples, pagodas or giving lucky money..., leading to the emergence of a type of money exchange service business that takes advantage of the difference. According to Decree 96 on penalties for unauthorized activities, this year, if discovered, small change exchange activities with a fee will be fined 20 - 40 million VND.