Just in: Banks now pay old N1000, N500 notes

Some commercial banks on Monday started paying out the old N1000 and N500 notes.

This is coming after the Supreme Court judgment, which extended the validity of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) currency redesign policy to December 31,

A report by Daily Trust said some banks in Kano and Abuja commenced paying out the old N500 and N1000 notes on Monday.

It specifically reported some branches of Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) as issuing out old notes.

It however noted banks like Polaris Bank in Abuja not to have commenced the old banknotes issuance as of the time the report on Monday afternoon.

Sources at GTB said they received a directive from their management to begin paying old notes in their vault.

It quoted a Polaris Bank official as saying only the old N200 notes were still being issued, “as we do not have any new directive on what to do yet.”

“The problem is that taking the old notes from customers will require the CBN form as we don’t have any directive in that regard,” the source said.

As of the time of this report, Daily Trust was unable to confirm if the CBN had officially issued a bank-wide circular instructing the Deposit money bank to comply.