People gather on the Bund along the Huangpu River in Shanghai on June 1, 2022, following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in the city after a two-month lockdown. Photo: AFP

 
The total cash supply transferred from between June 1 to 15 in Shanghai by the central bank's local headquarters reached nearly four times that of the same period in 2021, ensuring a sufficiency cash in stock in response to the surging demand after the city fully resumed production and work, according to media reports on Monday.

The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China (PBC) issued a notice on June 9, aiming to efficiently shorten the waiting time and increase the working efficiency for local branches as the time for staff members handling personal business has been increasing significantly, the paper.cn reported.

The notice came following the surging cash withdraw demand, combined with the impact of the previous COVID-19 flare-ups and the centralized distribution of pensions, leading to a jump in the number of customers requesting personal services with long queues appearing outside some bank branches which have a large number of pension account holders.

The PBC required branches in Shanghai to strengthen internal management and effectively improve the service quality and efficiency for cash withdraw to meet the public demand with possibly extending service time, while enhancing the management and maintenance of ATMs. It also stressed the importance to provide necessary services for customers waiting in line during the hot summer. 
 
The central bank later issued another notice on June 18 to further tackling the current difficulty, placing an emphasis on actually meeting the cash demand of seniors, cnstock.com reported. 

This follow-up notice asked branches to improve the service quality for seniors opening "green channels" for special groups and senior citizens. Meanwhile, long-term guarantee mechanisms and targeted measures such as announcing reservation phone numbers and offering guiding services should be implemented in a bid to provide adequate service to older customers.