Venezuela Debuts New High-Value Bank Notes

Following in the footsteps of his family before him, Julio M. Herrera Velutini has spent over two decades in the international banking industry. Though he currently sits on the board of directors with a Puerto Rico-based financial institution, Julio Herrera Velutini has spent the majority of his career working in the Venezuelan market.

Over the last four decades, the Venezualan market has been experiencing a dramatic rise in inflation due to developing issues in local economic and cultural circles. This growth ultimately peaked in late 2016, when the national inflation rate reached a staggering 800 percent. Not long after, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared that the government would issue brand new bank notes to accommodate the nation’s hyperinflation and supplant the now obsolete 100-bolivar note.

In mid-January 2017, banks across Venezuela began to hand out new 500-bolivar notes. However, the government has since released a number of other notes with values that reach as high as 20,000 bolivars. These new notes are making it easier for Venezuelans to make everyday purchases, which had previously required them to bring large stacks of 100-bolivar bank notes. The last of these notes left circulation in late February.