Where To Get New Bank Notes For CNY 2022 And Other Eco-Friendly Options
CNY means new banknotes for angbaos - or does it really?
By Melissa Teo -
The Lunar New Year is just around the corner and if you're starting to stuff those red packets, then you may be looking for new banknotes to fill them.
Starting today (4 January, 2022), five banks — DBS Bank, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered and Maybank — will be opening online reservations for the coveted banknotes.
In a media release, DBS shared that there will be 64 of such ATMs across 45 locations islandwide. The service will be available from 10am to 10pm daily between 11 to 30 January 2022, and 10am to 1pm on 31 January 2022.
Click here to find an ATM near you, as well as find out the expected waiting time.
Do note that for the DBS and POSB ATMs, each customer is limited to a maximum of three withdrawals during this period.
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), around 100 million new notes are issued annually for Chinese New Year as well as other festive periods.
Some may assume that these notes continue to stay in the system, but a "large proportion" of such notes — particularly $2 bills — are returned after the festivities are over. These are subsequently destroyed as the number of notes "far exceeds normal circulation demand".
This in turn can have negative impacts on the environment as the process produces plenty of unwanted carbon emissions.
MAS has urged the public to switch to digital red packets as these are a "safe, simple, and speedy way to convey blessings to family and friends".
If you are a customer at any of these banks, you can send digital angbaos via PayNow:
Bank of China
CIMB
Citibank
DBS Bank/POSB
HSBC
ICBC
Maybank
OCBC
Standard Chartered
UOB
Alternatively, consider sending a DBS QR gift card, a semi-digital alternative where a single-use QR code is printed on a card that resembles a red packet. To get the money, all the receiver needs to do is scan the code.
And if you order your DBS QR gift cards online by Jan 16, they will be delivered to your doorstep for free.
For those of you who prefer to stick to tradition and dole out physical notes, MAS encourages you to reuse old notes as "most of the notes in circulation in Singapore are clean and of good quality, and suitable for use in festive gifting
Text by: Melissa Teo/AsiaOne