Damaged banknotes policy 2014
Dear Reserve Bank of Australia,
I would wish,to receive all relevant information,on the change of policy regarding denied claims payment for damaged banknotes submitted since January 1st 2013.till the present day.
In particular what is the value of.denied payment claims since this time.?
How.many companies and individuals have been denied payment?
The banknotes that the Rba claims are destroyed when a claim is denied,please state in detail how the submitting party loses legal right to this money?
Is this policy reflected under any legal statute?
How does the reserve bank account for this money?
When a claim is denied who,witnesses the destruction of the Banknotes?
What happens if a party wishes to dispute the payment or wishes to legally contest the destruction of the notes.or requests that the notes not be destroyed till a court has had time to review the claim?
What happens if a party does not agree to sign the application form that States the Banknotes are not returned to the claimant?
On what legal grounds does.the policy state businesses are not allowed to engage in the practise of.buying these notes and submitting them to the Rba?
Sincerely
Ronnie shahar
Dear Reserve Bank of Australia,
An additional request the RBA claims in the processing of.Damaged notes it needs.to comply with anti money laundering and terrorist financing legislation.
Please advise the.number of.claims over the past 100 years have led.to the prosecution,of a.company or individual for money laundering or the financing of terrorism?
Furthermore to my.previous request how.many claims and what,is the value of the claims that payment was denied on banknotes with a size of over 20 percent. Between 1993 and 2013.?
Specifically the value of the denied claims and the number of. Claimants.
Furthermore.advise on what appeals process is followed when,a.claimant contests payment or denied payment?
Yours faithfully,
Ronnie Shahar
Dear Mr Shahar,
I refer to your enclosed email and advise that in its current form, it is not a valid request in terms of section 15(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (since your request is asking for information, rather than seeking documents).
We have, however, decided to interpret your email as a request for documents containing the material you are seeking and will process it accordingly. Please note that we confirm receipt of your request, and that processing of it commenced on Friday 21 July 2017. We are also treating both of your recent emails as the one request (RBAFOI-171801).
Yours sincerely
FOI Office | Secretary's Department
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 8111 | e: [RBA request email] | w: www.rba.gov.au
Dear Mr Shahar,
I refer to your enclosed email and advise that in its current form, it is not a valid request in terms of section 15(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (since your request is asking for information, rather than seeking documents).
We have, however, decided to interpret your email as a request for documents containing the material you are seeking and will process it accordingly. Please note that we confirm receipt of your request, and that processing of it commenced on Friday 21 July 2017. We are also treating both of your recent emails as the one request (RBAFOI-171801).
Yours sincerely
FOI Office | Secretary's Department
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 8111 | e: [RBA request email] | w: www.rba.gov.au
Dear Mr Shahar
I refer to my emails dated 26 July referring to your two requests dated 20
July 2017 titled ‘Damaged banknotes policy 2014’. As indicated in my
emails, in each case your request does not seek documents. Accordingly it
is not a valid request for access under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act). The FOI Act only confers a right to request access to
existing ‘documents’. While I initially considered that it may be possible
to interpret your questions as requests for documents, on reflection and
on attempting to reframe your questions as requests for documents, I have
realised that it is not possible to do so. Accordingly I withdraw my
emails dated 26 July, and confirm that your requests are not, and will not
be treated as, access requests under section 15 of the FOI Act.
However, I am pleased to be able to supply the following factual
information in response to some of your questions. This information is
provided outside the terms of the FOI Act as a voluntary administrative
release of information.
In relation to your questions about number and value of denied damaged
banknote claims covering two periods (from 1 January 2013 to the present
day and between 1993 and 2013) please see the table below. Prior to March
2004, the Bank applied a different methodology for assessing damaged
banknote claims. As banknotes with less than 50 per cent of the surface
area present were assessed at nil value prior to March 2004 (unlike the
current approach where banknotes with less than 20 per cent of surface
area are assessed at nil value), the pre March 2004 data are inconsistent
with the post 2004 data. Further, the Bank’s current damaged banknotes
system contains claims data from April 2004 only. Given these
circumstances, data from April 2004 onwards are presented in the table.
Given the reference to a size over 20 per cent in your second email, we
have excluded from the data supplied any claim made where our records
indicate that what was submitted did not have or contain any visual
evidence of banknotes (or items having the appearance of banknotes) with a
surface area of at least 20 per cent.
If a claim made prior to 23 January 2014 has been the subject of a
notification that the Bank has determined to refuse to continue to process
the claim until requested information has been supplied, it has been
included in the table even though the claim has not been denied. We have
done this given the time that has elapsed since this notification was
provided. However, claims made on or after 23 January 2014 that are in
progress, or on hold pending the provision of further information or a
legal process such as probate, have not been included in the column for
Period 2.
Period 1 Period 2
Apr 2004 to 1 Jan 2013 to
31 Dec 12 30 Jun 17
Number of claims 280 402
Number of claimants 226 307
Claimed amount ($ 000) 21.8 341.1
Please see the [1]Claims Requirements page of the Reserve Bank’s Banknotes
microsite for confirmation that claims submitted to the Reserve Bank's
Damaged Banknotes Facility must be accompanied by a completed [2]claim
form.
Banknote destruction procedures are confidential for security reasons.
The Reserve Bank does not prosecute money laundering or terrorism
financing offences. Its role in the prevention of money laundering and
terrorism financing is to implement and maintain procedures that identify,
mitigate and manage the risk that the ‘designated services’ it provides,
including damaged banknote claims, are used to facilitate money laundering
or terrorism financing.
The remainder of your questions relate to questions of law and legal
rights. These are matters in relation to which you will need to take your
own legal advice.
If you wish to make a freedom of information application in the future,
please see the website of the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner and, in particular, the page at
[3]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor..., for information
about how to make a valid request under the FOI Act.
Yours sincerely
FOI Office | Secretary's Department
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 8111 | e: [4][RBA request email] | w: [5]www.rba.gov.au
Dear Mr Shahar
We assume from the subject line in your email that you are seeking an internal review under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). As indicated in our email of 17 August below, your requests did not seek access to any document or documents. Accordingly they are not, and have not been treated as, access requests under section 15 of the FOI Act.
As there was no valid request under section 15 of the FOI Act, there has been no ‘access refusal decision’ (as defined in the FOI Act) and accordingly the provisions of the FOI Act dealing with internal review do not apply.
Yours sincerely
FOI Office | Secretary's Department
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 8111 | e: [RBA request email] | w: www.rba.gov.au