I am a retailer, and when I went to the bank to exchange euro notes for euro coins, I was charged. I thought exchanges were free for the first three months of this year?
The banks are offering a free service for the exchange of Maltese lira to euro, in order to pull the Maltese lira out of circulation. Exchanging euro for euro is not part of the free service provision agreed with the banks, and so they are free to charge for this service (as they would have done in 2007 for Lm notes exchanging into Lm coins).