No exchange of notes for other-bank customers on Saturday

Senior citizens are exempted and they can go to any bank branch to exchange notes tomorrow

Indian Banks' Association said, on Friday, that all banks will serve only their respective customers tomorrow (November 19) and will not exchange the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from customers of other banks.

"All these days our own customers have suffered because we have not been able to do their work. So, we have seen lot of pending work at branches especially for our existing customers. We, from IBA, have taken a view that tomorrow, that is, on Saturday we shall be exclusively doing work for our own customers. And tomorrow we will not be doing exchange of notes (for outside customers)," IBA chairman Rajeev Rishi told reporters in Mumbai on Friday.

He, however, said senior citizens are exempted and they can go to any bank branch to exchange notes tomorrow.

The IBA decision is only for Saturday and from Monday onwards all customers will be allowed to exchange notes at a branch of any bank.

Rishi said after the banks started using indelible ink to mark fingers of customers who have exchanged notes, the queues decreased.

"For the last one week, we have been seeing huge rush but for the last two-three days after we introduced the inking of finger we have seen a visible reduction in the rush at branches. The queues have shortened," Rishi said.

The government announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8. Banks were opened for transactions from November 10 but were closed on November 14 on account of Gurunanak Jayanti in major parts of the country.

Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters