Wait long enough in a bank, and you’ll see them arrive: teams of young men, with heavy plastic bags full of cash on their shoulders. Each bag contains the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars – sometimes more than $100,000, depending on the denomination. Often, they’ll dump the piles of notes on the floor and count the individual blocks – each one a bundle of 100 notes – in front of waiting customers. And nobody will bat an eyelid.
Look more closely and you’ll also notice air purification machines dotted around the branch. These are to protect customers and staff from the dust and mould that inevitably builds up on such a large amount of cash. Bank staff also typically wear face masks to protect their respiratory systems from the particles in the air.
“The K1,000 notes are the dirtiest, because they are the most used in everyday transactions. But these days, even K5,000 notes are getting dirtier,” one bank teller told Frontier. “One of my colleagues had to be hospitalised to clear the dust from her lungs because of the long-term exposure to these dirty notes.” (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment