Banco de Portugal released a new edition of its podcast in which it states that banknotes damaged by flooding in homes and commercial establishments can be recovered with the Banco de Portugal banknote valuation service.

Interviewed on the podcast, the cash operational area coordinator, José Luís Ferreira, said that "there is evidence that the recent floods in Lisbon slightly increased the delivery of wet banknotes" and that the central bank "expects that the floods that are occurring in the North of the country can also promote a service increase movement".

Any citizen who has accidentally destroyed or mutilated banknotes (damaged by humidity, burned, eaten by animals, among other reasons) can send them to Banco de Portugal so that they can be valued (you can deliver the banknotes at a BdP branch or send them by mail).

For a euro banknote to be valued, more than 50% of the surface must be able to be reconstituted to be able to guarantee its authenticity by security elements (in the case of escudo banknotes it was 75%).

If it is possible to value the banknote, it is destroyed and citizens are given the corresponding amount. For a 20 euro note, even if only half is visible, the amount of 20 euros is credited to the account of the owner of the note. If the banknotes are unrecognisable, they are considered lost, then destroyed and the owner does not receive any compensation.

The banknote recovery service recovered 324,853 banknotes between 2002 and 2021, having refunded almost 12.6 million euros to citizens who had destroyed or mutilated euro and escudo banknotes.

In the fires of 2017 alone, 4,022 banknotes arrived at Banco de Portugal to be valued.

All cases of destroyed banknotes that arrive at Banco de Portugal to be valued are reported to the Financial Information Unit of the Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), to prevent possible crimes. When delivering the banknotes, citizens have to fill in a form with their data and the context in which the banknotes were destroyed. If cash has been deliberately damaged it is not eligible for replacement.