BoT disburse cash reserve by 150 billion baht

BANGKOK, Dec 16 (TNA) -- The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has disburse a cash reserve of 150 billion baht to commercial banks, an increase of 4 per cent from last year, confident that the amount would be enough in circulation for the general public to use on their spending for the New Year. BoT Assistant Governor for Banknote Management Group, Woraporn Tangsaghasaksri said that between the end of December 2016 and the New Year festival of 2017, banknotes would be in higher demands among the public as they spend more during the year end's festivity. He added that the BoT has evaluated that all commercial banks would start to take out more bills a week prior to the New Year Festival 2017 at a total amount of 150 billion baht, which is 4 per cent higher than the year before. He said the BOT has prepared banknotes for all the different values in the Thai currency to meet the high demand. The Bangkok Bank, meanwhile, informed that it has planned to reserve around 60 billion baht worth of cash to provide cash services through 10,000 of its ATMs to customers during the December 31, 2016 to January 3, 2017 New Year long holidays, adding that it would also exempt all fees for withdrawing cash across different provinces. Kasikorn Bank or Kbank, in the other hand, is preparing to store up to 32 billion baht worth of cash ahead of the New Year long holiday to reserve cash for its customers at over 8,900 of the bank's ATMs nationwide. Bank of Ayudhya is also planning to reserve up to 11 billion bath in cash for its customers, an increase of about 13.4 per cent from its reserve for last year. (TNA)