SINGAPORE - Banks in Singapore will usher in Chinese New Year 2020 by providing new Singapore dollar notes to customers for the festivities.
DBS and POSB will issue the new notes and good-as-new notes from Jan 9. Their customers can collect the new notes at 40 POSB pop-up ATMs at 20 community clubs islandwide between Jan 9 and Jan 24, the eve of Chinese New Year.
OCBC and UOB customers may collect the new notes from Jan 9 too.
COLLECTION AT DBS/POSB
Customers can reserve time slots to exchange old notes for new ones via its online reservation system, said the bank.
They can choose from denominations of $2, $10 and $50 via the system, and collect them on their preferred dates and times at all full-service branches, except the DBS Marina Bay Sands branch and the DBS Woodlands Service Centre branch.
At the pop-up ATMs, customers can withdraw new notes that add up to sums of $100, $300, $500 and $600. They can choose from denominations of $2, $10 and $50.
People collecting and withdrawing new or good-as-new notes at DBS/POSB branches or pop-up ATMs will receive two sets of the bank's red packets.
The hongbao are made of environmentally-friendly paper from sustainable sources.
DBS said recycling bins for used red packets will be available at all DBS/POSB branches in Singapore from Jan 28.
COLLECTION AT OCBC
OCBC said it has set up areas for queuing and converted about 40 meeting rooms and counters across its branch network for customers to withdraw or exchange new notes.
"For quicker service at these counters, customers can choose our pre-packed OCBC Fortune Packs which contain 100 $2 notes and 30 $10 notes.
"We have 19 Sunday banking branches that are open from 11am to 7pm, so customers do not need to take time off work on weekdays to change their notes," said Mr Sunny Quek, OCBC Singapore's head of consumer financial services.
With limited stocks of new notes each day, customers can exchange up to $500 each day at OCBC Bank.
The bank has also rolled out a digital Chinese New Year queue service on its mobile banking app for customers to check on the availability of new notes at its branches in real time.
Customers can get a queue number on the app before heading to the branch, to minimise waiting time.
The bank said 2,000 digital queue tickets were issued during Chinese New Year in 2019.
COLLECTION AT UOB
UOB customers can reserve their new notes online via UOB Personal Internet Banking between Jan 9 and Jan 19.
They can reserve them in denominations of $2, $10 and $50, capped at $1,400 in total, the bank said.
Customers can choose preferred dates and branches to collect their new notes from after reserving them.
The last day for collection is Jan 21.
Walk-in exchange for new notes is also available from Jan 9 to Jan 24 at all UOB branches, except those at these malls: Hangout @ SP, Sengkang Express and Tampines One.
