Banks were advised to preserve CCTV recordings

Reserve Bank today advised all the banks to preserve the CCTV recordings of operations at bank branches and currency chests till further order.

On December 13, 2016, RBI had issued a notification, wherein the banks were advised to preserve the CCTV recordings of operations at bank branches and currency chests for the period from November 08, 2016 to December 30, 2016, until further instructions, to facilitate coordinated and effective action by the enforcement agencies in dealing with matters relating to illegal accumulation of new currency notes.

“In continuation to the above, keeping in view the investigations pending with law enforcement agencies, proceedings pending at various courts, you are advised to preserve the CCTV recordings of operations at bank branches and currency chests for the period from November 08, 2016 to December 30, 2016 in a proper way, till further orders”, the notification said.

The Government had issued a notification on November 8, 2016, withdrawing the legal tender status of ₹500 and ₹1,000 denominations of banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series issued by the Reserve Bank of India. This was in order to tackle counterfeiting Indian banknotes, to effectively nullify black money hoarded in cash and curb funding of terrorism with fake notes.

RBI in its mint street memo* of August 2017, currency notes of denominations of ₹1000 and ₹ 500 (specified bank notes or SBNs), valued at ₹15.4 lakh crore and constituting 86.9 per cent of the value of total notes in circulation were demonetised.

* Mint Street Memos (MSM) is a series of documents that are in the form of brief reports and analysis on contemporary topics, prepared by the staff of RBI and Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL), or drawn from one of the recent publications of the Bank.