Banks get ready to supply new currency

The banks will be on the frontline when it comes to the introduction of the euro in January.

Responsible for issuing euros to individual customers and retailers, they will play a key role in replacing the Irish pound with the new euro notes and coins.

Around 220 million euro notes and more than one billion coins will have to be distributed in the Republic. Meanwhile, some 7,100 tonnes of Irish pound coinage will have to be collected out of the system, a task that will primarily fall to the banking sector.

But the bankers are confident that they are ready to meet the challenge.

According to Mr Felix O'Regan of the Irish Bankers' Federation (IBF), the sector has been working on plans for the single currency for the past five years.

Some 30 committees have been focusing on various aspects of the changeover, from preparing the capital markets to ensuring that the clearing system will function.

"We are well prepared for this challenge. For the customer it will be business as usual," Mr O'Regan says.

Much of the work on the industry's systems has been co-ordinated centrally by the IBF and its affiliated body, the Irish Mortgage Savings Association.

"It's no good Bank of Ireland's clearing system working if another bank's doesn't. That would jeopardise the smooth operation of the system," Mr O'Regan says, noting that the banking system is only as good as the sum of its parts.

The bulk of this work is now complete, as much of it was undertaken ahead of the introduction of the euro in non-cash form on January 1st, 1999.

The international side of the banking business was also focused on this deadline, which means the sector has been free since then to concentrate on the retail and consumer sectors.

Supplying their retail customers with the currency they will need on January 1st is one of the big tasks facing the banks.

Front- loading, the transfer of the new currency from the Central Bank to the financial institutions, has been under way since last month. Coins are currently being supplied, with notes due to follow later.

In turn, the banks have also begun the process of sub-front-loading, or getting the euro out to retailers.

AIB is recommending that retail customers, who will have to take in Irish pounds and pay out euros over the first few days, take at least a 10-day supply of coins.

"We are recommending that they take five to seven times their till value any day and multiply that by 10," says Mr Pat O'Reilly, who has responsibility for European Monetary Union planning at the bank.

On the customer side, the 1,200 ATM machines across the State will play a key role in putting the new currency into circulation.

They will close down for a few hours after midnight on January 1st to allow them to be reloaded with the new single currency, while the systems that run them will also have to change over to euros.

They are expected to come back into operation on a phased basis throughout the day and most should be dispensing euros by that evening.

AIB's Mr O'Reilly estimates that more than 80 per cent of the bank's machines should be back in operation by dawn.

Bank of Ireland is less specific, saying only that it hopes to have all machines dispensing euro by the end of the day.

As far as customers' banking arrangements are affected, the IBF is co-ordinating a communications programme for the industry as a whole.

A booklet, The Euro, Banking and You, is widely available through the branch network and outlines what customers need to know.

The IBF is also organising a radio advertising campaign and an education programme for schools, aimed at informing pupils but also their parents.

"It's surprising how much you can get to adults through children," Mr O'Regan says.

jmosullivan@irish-times.ie