In Karachi, the central bank of Pakistan announced an inquiry into the issuance of improperly printed Rs 1,000 banknotes to commercial banks. This move came after a video went viral, revealing that the reverse side of some of these notes was blank, as per a report on Thursday.
A representative from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) mentioned that both commercial banks and individuals who received these flawed notes could exchange them. This exchange could be done at the bank branches where they were initially received or at the designated 16 central bank offices nationwide, reported The Express Tribune.
A video lasting a minute surfaced earlier, displaying the absence of printing on the back of certain Pakistani Rs 1,000 notes. The individual who recorded the video remained off-camera but identified himself as a branch manager of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Model Colony, Karachi. Holding the defective notes, the individual revealed they had received fresh currency notes of Rs 1,000, Rs 500, and Rs 5,000 denominations.
Although the misprinted notes appeared flawless from the front, flipping them over revealed incomplete printing on the reverse side. The individual disclosed that many batches of fresh currency notes had already been distributed to customers, expressing uncertainty about the extent of misprints. The issue came to light when a customer returned two such notes to the bank. Additionally, the manager exhibited another bundle of Pakistani Rs 1,000 notes, containing two misprinted notes. He later asserted that every bundle contained at least two misprinted notes.
Upon approaching NBP to verify the video’s authenticity, an official confirmed that the matter had been escalated to senior management and was under investigation. The SBP official elaborated that the flawed notes still possessed their security features and would undergo scrutiny by officials at public counters during exchanges.
The official clarified that despite a robust system to double-check quality and reject misprinted notes, there remains a possibility of erroneously circulating misprinted notes during the printing press’s million-note cycles. A press release from the central bank stated that only 10 misprinted notes were issued to NBP’s Model Colony branch. It further outlined that misprinted banknotes could be exchanged for fit notes at any office of the State Bank of Pakistan Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) nationwide, in accordance with the State Bank of Pakistan (Note Refund) Regulations, 1963.