500 Ringgit

Brunei's shift to polymer for this denomination was driven partly by durability concerns in the country's humid equatorial climate, where high-denomination cotton-paper notes in circulation deteriorated faster than their low-turnover use might suggest. The 500 Ringgit sits at the top of the standard circulation series and sees relatively little hand-to-hand movement, but institutional and commercial transfers meant these notes still accumulated damage over time.

The Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam, established in 2011, inherited oversight of notes originally issued under the earlier Brunei Currency and Monetary Board — which means examples dated before 2011 were issued under a predecessor authority, though the notes themselves bear no visible institutional distinction marking that administrative change.