Scribbled, stapled or soiled, accept all notes, RBI tells banks 

 

Mayur Shetty & Rachel Chitra

MumbaiChennai: TNN





The Reserve Bank of India on Friday made it clear that banks cannot refuse to accept notes from customers that are scribbled upon, faded or have discolourations. The central bank told bankers that these notes must be treated as “soiled notes“ and dealt with according to the RBI's `clean note' policy. The RBI circular was sent after complaints were received from the people that many bank branches refuse to accept notes, specifically in the denomination of `500 and `2,000, with anything written on them or where they are smudged with col our or faded due to washing.
Bank branches have been rejecting such notes as bank staff themselves have been falling prey to social media rumours that such notes are not accepted by banks. As a result of which senior executives at various banks, including State Bank of India, have been educating their staff to accept discoloured and slightly faded notes.

Since the printing quality of the new `2,000 notes has been poor, many customers have got notes with different shades from the same ATM. Bank staff should accept 2,000 notes, irrespective of scribbles or discolourations. In our 2013 regulationClean Note Policy, we advised people not to scribble on notes and advised bank managers to stop stapling notes or otherwise damaging them.
We told them to use only rubber bands for note bundles to ensure we have more ATM-fit currency ,“ said a Reserve Bank of India official from Chennai.
ATM operators said they are facing more problems with scribbled notes than from notes with printing errors or discolouration.

“We are seeing quite a few 2,000 notes with scribbles on them. Usually banks check usability of notes at their end before giving it to us for distribution.But, since there are slips, we also check the notes after receiving them from the bank,“ said V Balasubramanian, president transaction processing and ATM service, FSS. “When we've received 2,000 notes with scribbles, we immediately return it to the branches themselves. RBI has been very clear even pencil scribbles on the notes make them non-ATM fit,“ added Balasubramanian.
Banks said that there are four-levels of notes and at times lower-level employees can confuse their purposes, leading to rejections.

RBI has however sought cooperation from all members of public, institutions and others in keeping the banknotes clean by not writingscribbling anything on them.