30 April 2017

By Irfan Mohammed

JEDDAH — More than four months after Saudi Arabia issued new banknotes, cash deposit machines (CDMs) around the Kingdom do not accept them as banks have not yet completed configuring their software to scan the new bills.

Customers have been facing difficulties in depositing new notes in their accounts and are forced to visit banks during work hours to swap them with old notes. This has caused great inconveniences for people who do financial transactions beyond the office hours.

Most people go to the cash deposit machines in the evening especially to pay utility bills and the delay in calibrating ATMs and CDMs has created great difficulties for them. The retail sector is also experiencing problems as many shopkeepers and traders tend to deposit their daily collections in bank accounts in the evening.

“I used to deposit the cash generated by sales after closing the shop at night by visiting the nearest CDM but no longer,” said Asghar Ali, a shopkeeper.

He said instead of depositing the money in the bank account on the same day, he now has to visit the bank in the morning losing valuable time for business.

Other shopkeepers also narrated similar experiences in handling the new bank notes. They also face difficulty in identifying fake notes because the counterfeit detectors also need to be recalibrated.

Most retailers use counterfeit detector machines to ascertain the genuineness of SR500 bills especially.

Talat Hafiz, secretary-general of the information and banking awareness committee, told Saudi Gazette, “Banks in Kingdom were given six months since the release of the new notes to reconfigure their software”.

He said all banks would comply and configure their machines within the deadline set by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).

Hafiz said Saudi banks operated a total of 18,103 ATMs and CDMs all over the Kingdom as of February 2017.

SAMA issued the sixth edition of currency notes and coins with enhanced security features to commemorate the era of Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Salman in December 2016.

The new riyal bills issued in December 2016 in denominations of 500, 100, 50, 10 and 5 feature the portrait of King Salman. The bills are identical in size to the old banknotes.

© The Saudi Gazette 2017