About a month ago I called at the Annex of Central Bank of Malta to exchange Maltese liri and coins into euros. On noticing that a queue of about 40 persons was not moving, I decided to leave the premises and return another time.

The other morning I called once again at the same Annex and I found at least eight persons waiting to be served in front of me, to exchange over Lm50 of Maltese currency in euros.

Another small queue of persons, holding not more than Lm50 were being served separately and efficiently by one cashier. While these clients left within a few minutes, the same could not be said about clients on our side.

Two cashiers were available at our side but after 45 minutes only one client was ready. These cashiers were exchanging paper money and coins but the slow and inefficient way they were working left a lot to be desired.

No coin counting machines were heard operating and this must have surely led to the extensive length of time to be served. Irrespective of the quantity of currency and coins handled, I am sure that the cashier should not have taken more than 20 minutes to serve his client, once paper money counting machines were available. I could not stand it anymore and left after 45 minutes. No action was taken by the person responsible (if there was one!) to increase the number of cashiers when it was evident these two cashiers seemed unable to handle their job efficiently.

I was informed that similar situations happen every day. Where were the customer care personnel? Considering that a lot of clients are calling every day, why aren't the opening hours extended to include also afternoons?