CB to allow exchange of mutilated currency notes until further notice

Considering the immense requests made and the difficulties faced by the general public in exchanging willfully defaced currency notes after 31 March, the Central Bank has decided to continue the service of exchange of willfully mutilated, altered and defaced currency notes from CBSL until further notice.

It said the general public can submit such currency notes to the CBSL Head Office or Regional Offices located at Anuradhapura, Matale, Matara, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya and Kilinochchi or send the same by registered post to the following address together with the duly completed application form. 

The relevant application form can be obtained from the CBSL website (www.cbsl.gov.lk), Regional Offices and any branch of Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs).

The Central Bank also informed the general public that the currency notes that have been mistakenly marked in the form of a small dot or a line are not considered as willfully mutilated currency notes and such currency notes can be used for transactions. Service of accepting damage currency notes by the LCBs due to normal wear and tear or due to natural disasters will continue without any change.

In addition, all LCBs have been instructed to calibrate currency processing machines to detect willfully mutilated, altered and/or defaced currency notes. However, in case of general public receiving a defaced currency note from an ATM or other currency handling machine, such currency notes can be exchanged from the nearest bank branch.