Soon after midnight on New Years Day, ATMs across the Maltese islands started dispensing �uros, with over 73 BOV machines dispensing more than �1,200,000 by 12:00 noon. This amount is over ten times the typical ATM usage for the same period in previous years, underlining the importance of this national event.

BOV said that its e-POS machines automatically converted to accept �uro as their base currency, with over �235,000 transacted through e-POS machines by noon today. Bank of Valletta has a fleet of over 5000 e-POS machines.

As planned, those machines which were switched off during the night of the 31st Dec, and automatically converted to the �uro the first time they were switched on for business in January.

The Bank's 24x7 system was also switched on at midnight and BOV internet banking subscribers could log on to view account information including their account balances converted to �uro.

The euro changeover process is involving close to 50 IT professionals who are currently carrying out over 600 �uro changeover related procedures on the bank's internal IT systems. BOV reported that the changeover is progressing well and as planned.

All Bank of Valletta branches will be open till 4.00pm again today, and also tomorrow, Thursday the 3rd of January 2008. The main objective will be to get as many Maltese Lira notes and coins as possible out of circulation and to replace these with the new currency. Customers can make cash deposits in both Maltese lira and euro, cash exchange from Maltese lira to euro, and exchange foreign currency banknotes into euro banknotes and coins.