From April 1938 the Mefo bills were replaced by short-term Reichs Treasury bills. The Mefo bills to be redeemed could, in addition to the cash payment, be exchanged for other short-term bills. From March 31, 1938 to March 31, 1939, the issuance of these short-term treasury bills exploded. In this way, 4.2 billion RM were spent in just one year.
At the end of 1938, the Reichsbank directorate and the
Reich Ministry of Finance negotiated a repayment plan for the Mefo bills due in 1939. This provided that 3.2 billion RM in bills of exchange should already be repaid in 1939. Furthermore, one billion RM (including interest) should be paid from the Reich budget every year.
The 11.9 billion RM in Mefo change should be repaid after 17 years.
It was Schacht himself who prohibited the issuing of new Mefo bills and thus made himself unpopular with Hitler. In protest, he and other members of the Reichsbank directorate resigned from his post as President of the Reichsbank on January 20, 1939.
Mefo changes issued since 1934 (according to Schacht):
- 1934 RM 2.14 billion
- 1935 RM 2.72 billion
- 1936 RM 4.45 billion
- 1937 RM 2.69 billion (until March 31, 1938)
Commercial banks owned 90% of the Mefo bills. Only 10% were still in the commercial economy. The following were still in circulation:
- 1938 RM 11.9 billion
- 1939 RM 11.4 billion
- 1940 RM 10.8 billion
- 1941 RM 10.1 billion
- 1942 RM 9.5 billion
- 1943 RM8.8 billion
- 1944 RM 8.1 billion
The main reason why the banks were very interested in owning the Mefo bills is due to the legal requirements for the special bills shown in the balance sheet. They were allowed to be posted under the balance sheet item "
trade change ". This enabled the Mefo bills to be “hidden” from foreign shareholders. Another advantage of the Mefo change was that it was neither shown in the Reich budget nor in the books of the
Reich debt administration. The confidentiality was thus preserved.