In every year from 2001 to 2026, the value of RM10 notes in circulation in Malaysia rose between the end of December and the end of January, on Bank Negara Malaysia's own series. The next Lunar New Year falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, by the Hong Kong Observatory's calendar, and the red packets that come with it go by many names: ang bao or ang pow in Singapore and Malaysia, angpau in Indonesia, lai see (利是) in Hong Kong and 紅包 in Taiwan.
No central bank or cultural body we found publishes a correct amount. The one written set of rules we found is Singapore's, and it is short: an even amount, no 4 anywhere, and 9 accepted. After that, the notes you can actually get decide what fits in a packet.
Malaysia's January swell in small notes is shrinking
We took Bank Negara Malaysia's monthly figures for currency in circulation by denomination, which record the value of each note outstanding at the end of each month. RM10 rose from December to January in all 26 years from 2001 to 2026, by between 4.5% and 28.7%. Over 2011 to 2026 the median rise was 15.6%, while a typical month between April and November moved by less than 1%. RM1 and RM5 rise too, and the large notes much less.
The swell is getting smaller. For RM10 it averaged 20.0% in the Januaries of 2016 to 2019 and 9.3% in those of 2023 to 2026, and RM1 and RM5 fell further. These are end-of-month stocks, not withdrawals, and the series cannot separate New Year demand from anything else that happens in January. It is not only a Chinese New Year matter either: the central bank said in 2013 that it issued about 750 million new RM1 and RM5 notes a year for Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Chinese New Year together. In 2015 it said it had issued 44 per cent fewer new notes the year before, after asking the public to use fit notes instead. We have not tied the shrinking swell to that, or to anything else.
Singapore's banks are exchanging more fit notes each year
Fit notes are used notes in good condition, which the Monetary Authority of Singapore describes as "similar in quality to those from ATMs" but possibly with fold lines. MAS has reported over 11 million pieces exchanged at banks for Lunar New Year 2023, 11.7 million for 2024 and over 16 million for 2025, which MAS calls an increase of about 40%. In its July 2025 survey of 1,853 Chinese Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 15 and above, two in three were open to receiving fit notes in their hong baos.
The written rules come from the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre's Culturepaedia. The amount "should be in an even denomination" and "should not have the number four in it", because four sounds like the word for death (in Mandarin and Cantonese the two differ only in tone, as our guide to what a lucky 8 is worth on a Hong Kong plate sets out). Nine is accepted although odd, because it sounds like the word for long life. The same page says notes "should ideally be fresh from the press", which sits against MAS's case for fit notes, and that married people typically give, with newlyweds "often excused" in their first year.
The notes decide the rest. Singapore's current Portrait series has no $20 note, and in 2026 the pop-up and selected ATMs at DBS, OCBC and UOB gave out $2, $10 and $50, while Citibank's and Standard Chartered's gave out $10 and $50. Any sum made from $2, $10 and $50 is even, so $88 can be made from those machines and $99, which the rules accept, cannot; it needs a $5 from a branch exchange. The 2027 arrangements had not been announced by 1 October 2026. Until that date, our red packet amount generator suggested amounts with a 4 in them, six of its twelve answers at the default budget, and showed ¥ whatever the currency. It now leaves out any amount with a 4 and says whether each one can be paid in notes.
The exchange window is opening closer to the festival
In Singapore, bank exchange of notes opened 17 days before Lunar New Year in 2024, 15 days before in 2025 and 14 days before in 2026, with online booking a week earlier each time. In 2026 Singapore and Hong Kong both took bookings from 27 January and began exchanging on 3 February, and Taiwan's exchange ran from 9 to 13 February. Applied to 6 February 2027 that would put the Singapore and Hong Kong exchanges in late January, but it is a pattern from three years, not an announcement, and none of the four places had announced 2027 dates by 1 October 2026.
Regulators are pushing red packets onto phones
MAS offers e-hong baos as the alternative to new notes, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority encourages lai see through its Faster Payment System. DBS says that at Lunar New Year 2025, two in three of its customers who sent a digital ang bao were doing so for the first time, and that cash withdrawals fell 7% year on year. On the mainland, WeChat Pay told Southern Metropolis Daily that a single WeChat red packet is capped at ¥200, raised to ¥520 on three days a year.
Digital red packets carry their own risk. In February 2026 the HKMA warned of fraudsters sending electronic lai see and greeting stickers with phishing QR codes and links. Culturepaedia says the local Chinese community in Singapore "generally prefers traditional red packets to digital ones".
Hong Kong and Taiwan are offering used notes alongside new ones
In 2026 Hong Kong's three note-issuing banks exchanged both new notes and "good-as-new" used notes from 3 to 16 February. Taiwan's central bank ran its exchange at 455 branches and post offices, limited new NT$100 notes to 100 per person, and encouraged people to fill red packets with notes still fit for circulation (可用券) instead of new ones. The "green lai see" drive that asks Hong Kong to reuse the envelopes themselves belongs to a charity, Greeners Action, not the monetary authority.
The smallest note sets the floor. The HKMA lists Hong Kong's notes in everyday circulation as $10 and up, so HK$88 cannot be made from notes alone; it needs $8 in coins. Taiwan's regular notes start at NT$100, so any amount that is not a multiple of 100 needs coins as well.
