Raiffeisen Bank Polska is first in Poland to receive euros

Raiffeisen Bank Polska (RBP) has become the first Polish financial institution to receive the new euro currency. Since December 1, banks based in the European Union (EU) have been permitted to transfer euros to their subsidiaries outside the bloc. It is not known how much the Vienna-based headquarters of RBP has moved to Poland. "We have already sent out the money to our branches and we are currently ready to receive another batch of the new currency. We are planning to supply the inter-bank market in Poland and resell the currency to a number of other institutions," said Jaroslaw Dabrowski, deputy head of RBP. Across Europe on January 1, 15.4 billion bank notes with a face value of euro 648.5 billion, and 56 billion coins worth euro 15.7 billion, will go into circulation. Banks will automatically change into euros the currencies of all countries joining the single currency. Poles with cash sums held in the domestic currencies of these countries will have until the end of 2002 to exchange them at commercial banks and the National Bank of Poland. (Puls Biznesu, p. 11; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 30; Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 7) A.K.