On January 13, the reporter learnt from Industrial Bank (IB), all RMB 100 notes withdrawn from the ATMs of the Bank across China could have had their serial numbers identified since last month.
Serial number refers to a string of combined letters and figures on the lower left corner of the front face of a note. As China adopts the “one number for one note” management of RMB notes. The serial numbers printed on each note is unique, namely the source of each RMB note is traceable. In plain terms, if any one worries that he or she may have withdrawn fake notes from a bank, there is definite evidence to check. Previously, in such disputes, banks and customers often stuck to their own arguments. It was hard for customers to quote evidence, and banks also find it difficult to prove that they were “faultless”. The serial number identification technology substantially solves the problem of providing evidence and determining liability on disputes over false notes.
According to the requirement of the regulatory authority, the deadlines for the automatic teller machine (ATM) channel, cash recycling system (CRS) and counter channels of financial institutions of the domestic banking industry to fulfill serial number identification are respectively the ends of 2013, 2014 and 2015. Now, IB has not only realized the serial number identification of all ATMs, but the serial number identification proportion for cash paid via its CRS and counter channels also exceeded 70%. Some branches have fulfilled the regulatory requirements ahead. For instance, IB Nanjing Branch and Shanghai Branch have realized serial number identification in all the three channels of ATM, CRS and counter.
It is learnt that from 2013 to 2015, IB will successively input nearly RMB 200 million to equip and upgrade cash processing machines with the function of recording serial numbers of notes. Up to now, the Bank has equipped nearly 7000 pieces of such machines, a nearly one-fold increase over the beginning of 2013.
Relevant person-in-charge of IB indicated, “we expect to, in advance, meet the work requirement of the People's Bank of China (PBC) for achieving serial number identification for cash process in the channel of CRS by 2014 and counter by 2015”.