Sri Lanka became the eleventh country in the world to accept bulk cash deposits in large denominations, which are instantly credited to accounts, with the automated machines also dispensing funds.
Sampath Bank said Friday that it was also the first in the Asian region to install the ˜Bulk Notes Acceptor’, that will eventually also accept cheques for instant clearing.
The machine takes up to 100 notes in one thousand rupee denominations at a time, storing up to six million rupees.
Officials say it took over a year to fully program the machine to reject forgeries, working with laboratories in Germany and the United States.
Officials say Sri Lanka notes have lesser number of security features, and notes are also not as clean as in developed countries in cooler climes, requiring more effort to detect forgeries.
Sampath Bank is also working on clearance to directly interface with the Central Bank’s cheque truncation system, so that cheques can be deposited dire