Banks set New Year reserve
Five commercial banks announced yesterday that they would reserve a total of Bt226.77 billion in cash for ATMs and branch services for the upcoming New Year holidays, down from Bt233.70 billion they reserved for the same period last year.
The reduction in cash reserve is due mainly to Kasikornbank. The bank is the only one among five to reduced its cash reserve for the holiday period – down to Bt32 billion from Bt46.50 billion last year. This is to deal with the increase in payments via the digital channel, a KBank staffer said.
Bangkok Bank will reserve Bt60 billion in cash for its 10,000 ATMs nationwide for the New Year holidays (December 31 to January 3, 2016). The cash reserve is unchanged from the last New Year holiday.
Customers can use the bank’s services at more than 300 micro-branches in shopping malls and communities nationwide, which will be open for business as usual during New Year. The bank will resume normal operations from January 4.
Krungthai Bank will increase cash reserve by 7 per cent to Bt67 billion for the holiday period.
Siam Commercial Bank will reserve Bt55 billion cash for its ATMs and branches nationwide, a slight increase from Bt53.50 billion last year. Meanwhile, Krungsri has increased cash reserve by 19.3 per cent to Bt12.77 billion at its 5,485 ATMs and 665 branches.
Woraporn Tangsaghasaksri, assistant governor of the Bank of Thailand’s Banknote Management Group, said the central bank expected that commercial banks would withdraw Bt185 billion banknotes from the central bank one week before the New Year holidays. The expected cash withdrawal will be a 2.5-per-cent increase from the same period last year. People are expected to make higher demands for banknotes during the holidays compared to normal, hence the central bank has prepared enough banknotes to deal with the demand, he said.
