1.6m people book fresh currency notes through SMS service

Booking will be closed after hitting the limit, which is expected by June 20

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced that so far around 1.6 million people have obtained booking code for fresh currency notes, of which around 40% have received the banknotes from designated branches.

“Given the capacity of (designated) bank branches to handle customers, the central bank expects that the service will reach its maximum limit of bookings in a few days and further bookings will not be possible thereafter,” said the SBP in a statement issued on Friday.

In order to meet public demand for fresh currency notes ahead of Eidul Fitr, the SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP BSC) re-launched the SMS short code-based service (8877) for the issuance of fresh currency notes this Ramazan as well from June 12.

The service has been made available through a network of 1,002 e-branches of banks in 120 cities and 16 field offices of the SBP BSC across Pakistan. “This service has once again attracted overwhelming response from the general public,” the SBP said.

The central bank told the general public that the booking service would be closed after reaching its maximum limit, which was expected by the end of June 20, and no booking code would be issued after that.

However, the people, who will obtain the booking code, will be eligible to receive the fresh currency notes until the close of business on June 23, depending on the validity of the booking code.

Apart from the SMS service, the banks may continue to provide fresh currency notes to their customers from their branches and ATMs as the SBP is providing a sufficient quantity of banknotes to them.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2017.

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