Bank employees in Kerala have flayed the Reserve Bank of India directive prohibiting the stapling of currency notes and said that it would only compound the problem of fake currency notes in circulation.

Alleging that this RBI directive would only help the mafia running counterfeit currency rackets, the All-Kerala Bank Employees Federation president K Chandrasekharan Nair said that with this directive in force, it will become easier for them to put in circulation fake notes by resorting to the route of unstapled currency packets.

Emphasising that the flow of counterfeit currencies into the banks, especially in the high range regions and northern districts of Kerala, is alarmingly high, he said only very experienced cashiers could detect the well-produced fakes.

The others have to replace the fakes with money from their own pockets as the banks held them ultimately responsible.

Maintaining that this RBI directive has started adversely affecting the currency dealings in banks, he said during rush hours the bank cashiers as well as many customers did not so far bother to count the notes when they were given the stapled bundles with the bank's slip attached to it.

As the relationship between the banks and their customers was based on mutual trust problems of fake notes could be resolved later on as it was not easy to tamper with stapled bundles. The RBI's new directive would alter that relationship, he added.

However, an RBI official said that the central bank had issued the directive under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 prohibiting the stapling of currency notes to prevent damage to currency notes and in response to public complaints about multiple stapling reducing the life of such notes.

The directive has been issued in public interest and RBI would not revert back to the old arrangement, he added.