Jamaicans will be able to use the new polymer banknotes starting early next year when the phased roll-out of the new notes is slated to start.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday where the new notes were unveiled, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke confirmed that the notes will be available to the public by the latest June 2023.

This is to allow the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) to conduct its communication and public education campaign as well as to allow the physical changing out or upgrading of machines used in the processing of the currency.

“We don’t think the time period is long,” said Natalie Haynes, deputy governor, banking & currency operations & financial markets infrastructure at the BOJ.

She further explained, “I have my JBA representative here and she will tell you they are saying that [six months] is even too short to have all the ATMs across the island reconfigured. And it’s not just the ATMs, we have persons like Beryllium who process banknotes not only for Bank of Jamaica but for the commercials banks. Their machines to process banknotes have to be retrofitted so that’s going to take time, our machines within the Bank of Jamaica have to be retrofitted to actually process the notes to identify whether it’s a genuine notes or not.”

The finance minister said the transition period is important to ensure that the public understands as much as possible about the new notes.

“Today’s function is to show you the banknotes, to show you that the notes have been printed and they are ready. The BOJ is putting in place a transition period that will allow for focus groups so that representatives of people have an opportunity to interact with it before,” Clarke stated.

Meanwhile, Haynes reiterated that the new notes will be more durable and will result in the bank spending less to print notes over time.

“Normally we print banknotes every year, we just signed off on our budget for next year and there’s no provision for the printing of banknotes for next year. We don’t expect to be ordering every year.”

Currently, the BOJ is spending about 1.4 billion every year to print banknotes.

“Just think of that savings that we won’t have to do next year,” Haynes said.

“The substrate polymer is more expensive than the cotton that we have been printing most of our notes on and the enhanced security feature especially on the high value notes, those will be at a higher cost but what we’ll see is that over time we will have cost savings. We are seeking over time to replace the old notes so the stock that we have to order initially is going to be much larger than what we would normally order per year. I am going to go on a campaign to try and tell people do not crumple or mark the notes because it’s going to defeat our purpose overtime,” she continued.

She was supported by country director for the Caribbean at De La Rue, Gareth Evans, who commented “how we measure note life around the world is from the time the notes are put into circulation to the time the central bank removes that from circulation for not being fit for purpose. Bank of Jamaica is targeting 50 per cent increase, what we see around the world using all the data is that the average is 2 ½ the note life and that is including all different circulation environment and different handling conditions.”

De La Rue is the company which was contracted to print the new polymer banknotes. Going forward the Bank of Jamaica will have the option of choosing other firms for the printing of the notes, an option which the finance minister said was not available with the old banknotes.

Depending on the denomination, the current notes on average lasts for about two years.

By switching to polymer banknotes, Jamaica joins the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in the region as well as Canada and England.

The new notes will have enhanced security features and specific markers to facility ease of use by the visually impaired community. Notably, the UV lights which are currently used to verify the authenticity of banknotes now will also work with the new notes.

“We’re actually printing flyers now as we speak to say what the security features are on the front and back of the notes for each of the denominations so that will be there starting next year when we go LIVE with the public education campaign,” Haynes stated.

She added that once the new notes go into circulation, the BOJ will stop issuing the old ones. But while the transition takes place, both the new and old notes will remain legal tender.

The entire transition is estimated to take about two years but the BOJ experts maintain that it could be longer.

“When we start issuing early next year both notes will remain legal tender, as the commercial banks redeem the old notes to us we will not be reissuing. So, we’re giving people over time we don’t want everybody to rush the commercial banks or to Bank of Jamaica to exchange, it’s gonna take some time,” said Haynes.

There are six new polymer banknotes in total. The denominations of the banknotes are: $50, $100, $500, $1000, $2000, and $5000.

The $2000 banknote is an addition to the slate of denominations which existed before and it is expected to make it easier to provide change during cash transactions.

This is the first time Jamaica is changing its banknotes since 1969 when the island changed to a decimal system of currency.