The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) has urged the Chinese community to switch to e-angpow this coming Chinese New Year, in a bid to protect the environment and raise awareness. This comes as banks are reducing the quantity of new notes provided for the festive season, and are instead encouraging customers to recycle banknotes.

According to ABM, it has been working with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to promote the use of e-angpow via the Go Green campaign over the past few years, as it is “convenient as well as environmentally friendly”. This practice – which has also been adopted by various other countries in the region – will help to reduce carbon emissions and conserve resources, and still convey the same well wishes to loved ones, it commented.

Individuals who wish to still give out physical angpow, meanwhile, can use recycled fit banknotes for the occasion. Fit banknotes refer to notes that meet the quality criteria and standards to be kept in circulation, as determined by BNM.

An executive from a foreign bank in Malaysia corroborated this statement from ABM, stating that the bank is no longer providing new notes and is now only distributing recycled bank notes to customers. Another bank employee, meanwhile, said that only “half-new” notes are reserved for their regular customers. Our own checks at a few local bank branches also yielded similar results.

Understandably, some bank customers are let down by this change. “It just won’t be the same. Spring is a time of renewal, we want new notes. In previous years, there was never a problem getting new notes from the bank to be used for Chinese New Year angpow. But this year, they have stopped the practice. I can’t get any new notes even though I am a privileged customer,” said retiree KF Lim. To explain, the Lunar New Year is also known as the Spring Festival.

Commenting on this circumstance, the women’s chief of the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia, Datuk Natalie Lim Chong Ly explained that the Chinese community saw the use of new banknotes in angpow as a symbol of good intentions. As such, she believes that the tradition of giving new notes in angpow should continue to be upheld for family members and elders, but recycled notes can be used for angpow for friends.

Datuk Natalie also acknowledged the need to raise environment awareness, and therefore suggested that banks could provide more “half-new” banknotes instead of completely fresh notes. She also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of printing angpow envelopes with better quality to reduce the impact on the environment.

“By creating unique and visually appealing envelopes, people are more likely to value and keep them rather than discard them,” said Datuk Natalie.

(Source: The Star)

• TAGS:
• Angpow Notes
• Association of Banks in Malaysia
• Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM)
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• Bank Notes
• BNM
• Chinese New Year
• Chinese New Year 2024
• Datuk Natalie Lim Chong Ly
• Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia
• New Notes