Cash & Bank woes | Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd

“Come around at 4am. People have put down small stools and are already queuing up,” said one of the people queuing up to withdraw money from an ATM. 

This is the current situation; every ATM known to have regular refills of cash will definitely be graced with a snaking queue of frustrated customers. 

As the 8pm to 4am curfew is still in place, many are already at respective ATMs at hours slightly after the curfew is lifted. 

“I tried to leave as early as possible after 4am but when I got here, there already were at least 20 people queuing ahead of me,” said another customer.

As a result of the current political turmoil and the subsequent banking crisis, many had invested in two things they find to have more value and reliable; gold and foreign currency.

A long queue for an ATM along Strand Road, Yangon on April 30. 

There also are rumours that would prompt bank runs, reinforced by the fact that banks could not provide regular services, limitations to withdrawing from both the banks themselves and their ATMs.

Since then, some private banks, such as Yoma Bank, have reopened several of their branches on April 20 as well as set up an appointment system that customers must book in order to withdraw cash.

The CB Bank had also announced that it had set up a token system so that customers are able to get their tokens and reserve their time with the bank teller, also allowing online tracking system of the tokens.

After the announcements by both banks, long queues of people looking to withdraw their savings for use could be seen on April 20 for KBZ, AYA, CB and Yoma banks.

A crowd queues up in front of the ATM machine at Yangon’s Myanmar Plaza on April 30. (Photo – Thiha Aung)

The KBZ bank had limited daily withdrawals from their banks to 200,000 Kyats per day. For Yoma, the limit is set at 300,000 Kyats while also urging customers to only withdraw with one bank card at a time for that one customer with multiple cards will not withdraw a large chunk of the money stored inside the ATM, on top of making other customers wait longer. CB bank, also with a limit of 200,000 Kyats, had also announced that their CRM machines are still working as normal and had issued statements assuring customers that they are striving to fulfil the needs of their customers.

“It’s like a full time job to queue up in front of the ATM. At least Myanmar Kyat can be withdrawn in small amounts. Those with dollar accounts are dead in the water. The price to have somebody queue in your stead is also at five-figures (10,000 Kyats +) now. Even then, we cannot withdraw whenever we want. Some are using their connections to make the process easier but for the rest of us, we have to queue. They have to make withdrawing easier or else things are going to be terrible,” said a business owner.

The Central Bank had issued a statement, in regards to this situation, that the public can trust the banks to provide their regular services, in order to keep the situation from escalating further.

The queue at Myanmar Plaza on April 30

Within the April 7 statement by the Central Bank, it was stated that rumours of banking collapse and forced closure are being passed around by those with ill-intent , causing customers to worry and withold payments/deposits to the bank as well as do bank runs.

The Central Bank promised in its April 7 statement that the Central Bank is keeping tabs on the situation, making sure that banks can resume operations systematically and that the people should place their trust in the banks. It had also pushed for online banking services as banks were allowed to resume some of their online payments and other services such as allowing Account to Account Transfer, Wallet to Wallet, Bank to Wallet, Wallet to Bank, CBM Net, CCT Function through Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, Mobile Top-up, Other Cards Top-up, Bill Payments, Visa, Master, Credit Card Payments, MPU Cards, ALL ATMs, Bank Pays and so on.