The central bank will stop old and new notes exchange service from its counters from the next month.

Instead, the 8,000 branches of 47 scheduled banks in the country will provide with this service starting from May 2.

At the same time, the central bank has also closed down the services of exchanging torn notes, change of money and all other scheduled banking activities from its outlets.

A BB handout made the announcement on Tuesday, pointing out that it has taken the decision considering the security and needs of general people.

However, the central bank will strictly monitor the issue of supplying and exchanging notes and metallic coins by all branches of the commercial banks, the handout pointed out.

The decision will create more opportunities for the people in getting the services without coming up to Bangladesh Bank and reaching the banking services to the doorstep of people.

The handout said ensuring the security of BB is very important as it is one of the class one organisation under Key Point Installation (KPI).

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th April 2012