Public can book used-but-clean dollar notes deemed 'fit for gifting' for Chinese New Year from Jan 5, 2023

SINGAPORE — Members of the public getting ready for the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities may reserve “fit-for-gifting” dollar notes from Jan 5 onwards, with collections to take place from Jan 10.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore said in a joint press release on Tuesday (Dec 27) that people aged 60 and above, as well as people with disabilities, will still be able to walk into a bank branch to withdraw either “fit” or new notes from Jan 5.

However, customers not from these two groups going to Singapore’s three major banks — namely DBS, OCBC and United Overseas Bank (UOB) — will need to pre-book through their respective bank’s online reservation system in order for them to do the same.

The central bank and the Association of Banks in Singapore said that public demand for currency notes for festive gifting is typically in bundles of S$2 or S$10 denominations, which cannot be easily obtained in the desired quantities from automated teller machines (ATMs).

Fit-for-gifting dollar notes are used notes that are generally clean and of suitable quality for recirculation, including for festive gifting, they added.

The condition of these notes has been verified by banknote processing machines and are similar in quality to notes from ATMs.

MAS last announced that it would stop producing and issuing “good-as-new” notes in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The good-as-new notes, first introduced in 2013, are generally crisp and new-looking when issued, which are what most people want during Chinese New Year, in line with the tradition to have everything new for the new year.

These are new notes deposited and returned to the central bank right after the Chinese New Year period and processed twice to ensure that only the notes that are of very good quality are re-issued as good-as-new notes the following year.

Rather than these good-as-new notes, MAS encouraged the public to either use fit-for-gifting notes or e-hongbao for gifting instead during Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan 22 for the new year.

People celebrating the festival usually place money in a hongbao (red packet) to give away as gifts.

For added convenience, DBS and UOB will allow customers to withdraw larger quantities of fit-for-gifting notes from selected pop-up and branch ATMs. This will apply to the S$2, S$10 and S$50 notes.

DBS said in a separate press release on Tuesday that it will make available both fit-for-gifting and new notes at 72 pop-up ATMs across 47 locations, with service crew on hand at these locations to help customers during operational hours.

The bank said that the currency withdrawal services will be available from 10am to 10pm daily from Jan 5 to 20 — except on the eve of Chinese New Year on Jan 21, when the timing will be 10am to 1pm.

Each customer will also be limited to three withdrawals of new and fit-for-gifting notes throughout this period, the bank added.