BOV announced that it has sold 10,000 mini kits during the first day when the Maltese euro coins were available to the public. “Till mid-day, today, we have continued to register strong demand and we expect the sale of mini-kits to exceed the 16,000 mark by close of business Tuesday,” announced John Cassar Torreggiani, executive head responsible for the euro changeover programme at Bank of Valletta.

Concurrently, the sale of starter packs for retailers has continued to gather momentum. “We have also continued to register strong demand for retail starter kits with more than 13,000 starter kits sold or ordered from BOV Branches to date. This is a clear indication that the business community is preparing itself to start using the new currency as from 1st January 2008,” Mr Cassar Torreggiani said.

Mr Cassar Torreggiani said that BOV, as the official partner bank of the NECC, is continuing to take a leading role in the euro changeover process. “All our operational plans are now in place and we are fully prepared to start introducing the euro into circulation as from midnight of the 31 December 2007. In this regard, BOV ATMs will start to dispense euro 10 and 20 notes as soon as we greet the new year and all our card transactions will start to be conducted in euro with the automatic conversion of all our electronic point of sale terminals,” concluded Mr Cassar Torreggiani.