Internal Methods of Payment

Abstract

A very unrewarding and yet vital service which the banks provide for their customers is to make available to them the notes and coin which they need for making payments in cash. The customer expects to be able to draw cash at any time the bank is open (and to some extent when it is closed) in whatever denominations of notes and coin he or she requires. This is a particularly necessary service for the firm or company which has wage packets to make up on a Thursday or Friday, and usually to make it convenient to the bank (and to speed up the process when the cash is collected) the larger business customer will notify the bank a day or so before what mixture of cash will be required. In addition to drawing in cash, some business customers — especially retailers — will wish to change notes into coins and vice-versa. At the end of the day or early next morning these customers will wish to pay in their day’s takings, most of which may well be in a mixture of notes and coins of all denominations which the bank has got to count and sort out. Dirty and worn notes have to be separated from the good ones and bundled up for despatch by security van or bullion van to head office to be presented to the Bank of England for withdrawal from circulation and destruction. Worn coins have similarly to be withdrawn from circulation, and when a branch has sufficient of them they must be sent through the bank’s bullion office to the Bank of England.