Singapore to use fit notes for festive season

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Tuesday that fit notes are used in currency notes that are clean and of suitable quality for recirculation, including for festive gifts, and have been verified by banknote processing machines and are similar in quality to notes from ATMs.

It said that approximately 100 million new notes are issued each year for CNY and other festive periods. A large portion of these notes are used only once for gifting, and are returned to MAS shortly after each CNY.

The volume of returned notes far exceeds replacement needs, as most of the returned notes are recirculated to meet public demand, such as replacing unfit notes in circulation. MAS said excess notes are destroyed before the end of their useful life.

MAS said that the notes issued purely to meet the demand for festive purposes generate unnecessary carbon emissions and are a waste of resources.

The authority stated that the annual carbon emissions are comparable to powering 430 four-room HDB flats, and it would require 10,000 new trees to be planted to offset emissions.

The practice of printing new notes is not in line with environmental sustainability or Singapore's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050, according to MAS.

People who prefer to give physical hong baos for CNY can choose to use fit notes instead of new notes, while the e-hongbao offerings by banks have been enhanced over the years.

MAS said it will work closely with banks to make fit notes more accessible to the public.

The authority will cease issuing good-as new GAN S $2 notes, starting with the upcoming CNY, in conjunction with their advocacy for using fit notes.

GAN S $2 notes generate additional carbon emissions because of the additional processing needed to make fit notes a more sustainable option. The authority said it will give more details on the reservation and exchange of new and fit notes towards the end of the year.