Credit institutions and post offices are required to exchange banknotes difficult to identify and damaged banknotes through the service of the conversion of cash into other denominations. However, they are obliged to accept up to 50 banknotes at a time for conversion. Optionally, a fee of up to 5 percent of the face value of the forint banknotes to be converted may be charged for the service of exchanging between denominations.
Cashiers of credit institutions and post offices shall not immediately exchange the forint banknotes difficult to identify or damaged unless the denomination, genuineness and quantity of the banknote to be converted can be determined without doubt on the spot. If the banknote is incomplete (pierced or mutilated), a further condition of the conversion is that the fragment presented by the customer should be larger than half of the original banknote. If the incomplete banknote is composed of several pieces (even if the individual fragments have been glued together), the banknote shall not be converted unless the individual pieces are fragments of the same original banknote.
If the convertibility of the forint banknote difficult to identify or damaged cannot be established on the spot without doubt, the cashier shall issue an acknowledgement of receipt, protocol or other document certifying receipt of the banknote in question with a view to forwarding it to expert examination by the MNB.
At the MNB, the submitted banknote shall be examined by an expert committee. The findings of the expert committee, listed below, shall result in the following actions:
- If the expert committee finds that the forint banknote difficult to identify or damaged is convertible, the MNB shall transfer its countervalue to the forwarding credit institution or the Post Office, which shall pay out the countervalue to the customer.
- If the expert committee finds that the forint banknote difficult to identify or damaged is not convertible, the MNB shall notify the forwarding credit institution or the Post Office, which shall forward the notification to the customer.
In the event a suspicion of a criminal offence arises in connection with the banknote in question, the MNB is entitled to withhold the countervalue until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings initiated in connection with the banknote and to pay out or refuse to pay out the countervalue depending on the outcome of the criminal proceedings or the disposition of the competent authority.