India State Bank gets over AED25billion in deposits

Indians rushed to deposit 478.68 billion rupees (over AED 25 billion) of cash at State Bank of India after the government’s surprise move to abolish high-denomination banknotes, as customers queued for hours to deposit or exchange the old bills and ATMs ran dry. With the banned bills accounting for 86 per cent of money out of circulation, there is tremendous pressure on India’s banking system to replenish the cash. There’s adequate money in the currency chests at more than 4,000 locations and re-configuration of dispensing machines will be completed within two weeks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday. Customers returned more than 2 trillion rupees (over AED 108 billion) of old Indian notes at banks and ATMs with more more than 70 million transactions recorded from Wednesday through midday Saturday, the Ministry of Finance said on its website. The government said sufficient new bank notes are available to meet demand. (Divya Patil/Bloomberg)