BoT to reserve up to 80 billion in cash ahead of Chinese New Year

BANGKOK, Jan 23 (TNA) -- The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has announced that it has reserved 80 billion baht extra in cash ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, an increase of about 3 per cent from last year. BoT Assistant Governor for Banknote Management Group Woraporn Tangsaghasaksri said that as more notes are expected to be used during the Chinese New Year celebrations, which would fall at the end of January this year, the BoT has estimated that commercial banks would start to take out more cash from the BoT two weeks prior to the Chinese New Year around 80 billion baht, a hike of 3 per cent from the previous year, prompting the BoT to reserve more banknotes to meet the higher demands. Kasikorn Bank or KBank said that it is preparing to reserve up to 50 billion cash at its branches and ATMs to cater to the higher spending by the people during the Chinese New Year celebrations or between January 25-28, in which the sum would be divided into the following, 21 billion baht in cash would be reserved at all branches of the bank, 8.5 billion of which would relayed to branches in Bangkok, while the other 12.5 billion would be delivered to provincial branches. Kbank current has a total of 1,109 branches nationwide. The bank would also reserve the rest, or 29 billion for its total of 8,900 ATMs across the country, in which 14 billion would reserve for the ATMs in the capital and 15 billion would be used for ATMs in other provinces. (TNA)