Bank of Valletta started the process of actually distributing, through its branches, the euro retail starter packs and the five euro notes intended for the business community, last Saturday.

John Cassar Torreggiani, executive head, EU Programme, at Bank of Valletta announced that “Till close of business today, Monday, 3 December, 2007, Bank of Valletta has already sold or received orders for 7,000 retail starter kits. This shows that the process is proceeding as planned and that retailers are planning ahead to ensure that they have the necessary amounts of euro coins and notes in their tills to conduct business efficiently as from 1 January, 2008 using our new currency.”

Mr Cassar Torreggiani also took the opportunity to remind the business community and the public to deposit surplus Maltese lira coins and notes into the banking system before the end of December. “We would like to appeal to everyone to take an active part in making the euro changeover process as straightforward and efficient as possible by reducing cash holdings to a minimum, depositing any excess Maltese lira notes and coins at the banks from now”. All bank accounts denominated in Maltese lira will be automatically converted to euro on 1 January at no cost to the customer.