As of De­cem­ber 31st, the cur­rent $100 bill will no longer be le­gal ten­der in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

This was an­nounced by Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor Dr Alvin Hi­laire at a news con­fer­ence this morn­ing.

He said the ex­ist­ing law al­lowed for de­mon­eti­sa­tion of cur­ren­cy to come three months af­ter the pre-an­nounce­ment but that the amend­ments made by Par­lia­ment over the week­end, al­lowed for it to be done af­ter two weeks.

Dr Hi­laire told the news con­fer­ence that it is in that re­gard, the de­ci­sion was tak­en to have the change done by the end of the month.

He told the news con­fer­ence that the Cen­tral Bank has met with the com­mer­cial banks and that they are work­ing to turn around op­er­a­tions in one day.

The cur­ren­cy is be­ing giv­en to the banks to­day and will be avail­able to the pub­lic from to­mor­row.

"Don't rush them," he said, adding that while the banks are mak­ing the ef­fort, it could take a lit­tle while for every­thing to flow smooth­ly.

"It wouldn't run out," he added.

Dr Hillaire said the Cen­tral Bank does not know much about the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty de­ci­sions be­hind the quick change but added that they are work­ing to en­sure that their ob­jec­tives are met.

"The Cen­tral Bank was ap­proached....there are a few things we know that are al­ready in the pub­lic do­main. There are many things that we don't know and many things we don't need to know but we are ris­ing to the call," he added.

He said that all oth­er de­nom­i­na­tions will be con­vert­ed to poly­mer by March 31, 2020.

He added the poly­mer is more durable and cost-ef­fec­tive and will help save the coun­try a lot of mon­ey.