Deadline to use £50 and £100 paper banknotes approaching
There are just a few days left before high-value paper banknotes go out of circulation.
The Association of Commercial Banknote Issuers (ACBI), on behalf of Bank of Ireland UK and Ulster Bank, has announced that all Northern Ireland paper £50 and paper £100 notes must be withdrawn from circulation by 29th September 2023.
These are the last Northern Ireland issued paper banknotes that remain in circulation, marking a significant milestone in the transition to polymer bank notes.
The polymer banknotes of these denominations have been in circulation since their introduction here in February 2019.
All of the Northern Ireland banks involved have been swapping paper banknotes for the polymer counterparts, which are seen as providing significant benefits over paper, and with cutting-edge security features, makes them more difficult to counterfeit.
From Friday 29th September retailers will refuse to accept the paper £50 and £100 notes from Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank.
The ACBI is encouraging the public to spend or exchange any of these notes in advance of the upcoming deadline.
A spokesperson for the ACBI said: “Thanks to the work that the banks have already undertaken to swap older paper notes with more secure, environmentally friendly polymer notes, the majority of paper banknotes have already been replaced with polymer banknotes.”
Issuing banks will continue to accept all notes from their own customers, these can be either deposited into their bank account or exchanged for polymer notes. Other banks, building societies and the Post Office may continue to accept or exchange paper notes after 29th September.
