Chinese New Year (CNY) falls on Feb. 10, 2024.

For customers of DBS/POSB, OCBC, and UOB who are hoping to distribute physical red packets (or, angbaos), take note of how to get physical notes.

1. Pre-booking for collection at bank branches: Online pre-booking is required, from Jan. 17. Collection of pre-booked notes at bank branches from Jan. 24.
2. Walk-in exchange at bank branches: Only for those 60 and above, or persons with disabilities.
3. Selected pop-up and branch ATMs of DBS, OCBC and UOB: Notes can be withdrawn without any pre-booking from Jan. 24.

Customers of all other banks may refer to the respective banks’ websites for details on notes exchange, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a media release on Jan. 15.

According to an Annex provided by MAS, Standard Chartered Bank, Maybank, and CIMB Bank will also require online pre-booking for notes exchange ahead of CNY 2024.

Pre-booking

MAS said pre-booking of notes for DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB customers will commence from Jan. 17, 2024.

MAS said members of the public should make their pre-bookings so through the banks’ official websites or mobile banking applications.

"To protect customers from phishing scams, banks will not send any SMS messages with clickable links to customers," MAS added.

MAS encourages use of “fit-for-gifting” notes and e-angbaos

Customers seeking to exchange notes can opt for "fit-for-gifting" notes.

MAS said it "strongly encourages" the use of such “fit-for-gifting” currency notes or digital angbaos, as these options are more environmentally friendly than gifting new notes.

It added that "many members of the public did their part for the environment, by exchanging over 11 million pieces of Fit notes" in CNY 2023.

The emissions savings were equivalent to those from powering 220 four-room public housing flats for a year.

What are fit-for-gifting notes?

Fit-for-gifting notes are used currency notes that are generally clean and of suitable quality for recirculation, including for festive gifting, said MAS.

MAS added that "some of these notes may have fold lines or minor stains on them, but are generally clean", and that the condition of these notes has been verified by banknote processing machines and "is similar in quality to notes from automated teller machines (ATMs)".

MAS noted that the online pre-booking allows members of the public to withdraw denominations such as S$2, which are not available at regular ATMs.

It also allows members of the public to reserve the notes in bulk, instead of withdrawing notes multiple times from ATMs.

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Top photo by Nigel Chua