Sustainability as a concept has been best defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.

Bulgaria has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission and the Eurozone group president, paving the way for the country to start minting its own euro coins once it receives approval for eurozone membership.

A group of organisations from both the coin and banknote sectors have joined forces to support a first-of-its-kind in-depth study into the environmental impact of cash versus digital payments.

There was a palpable sense of optimism as 2021 concluded that – despite disruptions, restrictions, new lockdowns and a virus on the march again – things were finally improving and would start going back to where they were, or at the very least, to somewhere different but nevertheless better than the previous two years.

Digimarc Corporation has announced a five-year extension of its agreement with the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, comprising 35 of the world’s central banks.

In the full year, only three markets were less than 10% lower compared with the beginning of the year, eight lost between 10% and 20%, and three lost between 20% and 30%.

The BEAC (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale) has now introduced its new series of banknotes, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its foundation.

A review of this year's headlines.

The new look of banknotes featuring the image of King Charles has been unveiled by the Bank of England. The portrait will be the only change to existing designs of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes and will start to enter circulation from mid 2024.

Kusters, a family-owned company founded in 1911, has been at the forefront of destruction and shred handling equipment for both banknotes and coins since the 1970s, and has an installed base of more than 700 systems in various applications in over 80 countries.

The European Union has announced a set of new directives to limit the amount of cash and crypto transactions in a move, it says, that will crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing.

In November 2022, Algeria’s central bank, the Banque d’Algérie, issued a new 2,000 dinar banknote to commemorate 60 years of Algerian independence and to mark the occasion of the 31st Summit of the League of Arab States, which was hosted in Algiers.

The production of US banknotes for 2023 will likely be below that of the previous two years, according to the 2023 Federal Reserve order for currency published in early November.

To coincide with the Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum™ in mid-November, Reconnaissance issued a whitepaper – ‘What Goes Round Comes Round’.

De La Rue’s results for the first half of the current financial year – 2022/23 – saw sales and profits fall, along with a reduced overall profit guidance for the full year.

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) has approved De La Rue’s near-term science-based emissions reduction target.

The Qatar Central Bank has issued a commemorative banknote to mark the FIFA World Cup, which is taking place in the country from 18 November to 20 December.

Nominations have opened for the 17th round of the ‘Excellence in Currency Awards’ run by IACA (the International Association of Currency Affairs) and sponsored by Currency News™.

Banque du Liban is issuing an updated 100,000 livres banknote as part of an ongoing upgrade that has seen the replacement of the threads in several of the notes in the series with RAPID® micro-optics threads from Crane.

Len Olijar, Director of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is retiring after more than 34 years with the organisation.

The think-tank and cash advocacy initiative CashEssentials was presented with two awards at ATMIA’s recent ATM & Payments Innovation Summit 2022 in Berlin.

A year ago, the white paper, ‘Cash: A Roadmap to Sustainability,’ recorded a pleasing level of activity and progress across the cash industry on environmental sustainability, with plenty of evidence of organisations striving and achieving to do better.

The Central Bank of Liberia is currently replacing its 2016 banknotes with a new series, which include updated designs and a new high denomination of L$1,000.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBNS) recently announced that it is moving into the cash innovation space by developing a family of ‘bridging technologies’ to enable the physical banknote product to connect to digital data ecosystems.

Crane Currency has inaugurated a new filtration system that will reduce water consumption by as much as 500,000 cubic meters per year and remove more cotton fibres for reuse in paper production at its paper mill in Tumba, Sweden.

CCL Secure has won an Energy Management Award, together with its sustainability partner Verco, at the 23rd Energy Institute Awards ceremony, which was held on 23 November in London.

The venue and date for the African Currency Forum has been announced. It will take place from 15-18 January in Luxor, and more information about the events can be found at africancurrencyforum.com.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has said it will save as much as P2.4 billion (US$40 million) from the conversion of paper 1,000 piso banknotes to polymer due to their longer lifespan.

The Royal Mint has announced revenues of £1.4 billion for 2021/22, up by 27% over the previous year, and pre-tax profits of £18 million, up by 45% over the 2020/21 and the largest profit since it was vested as a limited company in 2010.

If you have been enjoying a new blockbuster movie at the theatre or binge watching the latest series on your sofa, then you’ve most likely seen impressive piles of cash. This is actually fake cash, manufactured as a prop, especially for the camera.

In addition to the industry associations that are advocating for cash, two new initiatives in Europe have demonstrated the scope for campaigns to promote cash acceptance at the country level by harnessing interest groups throughout society.

Despite being the oldest company in Chile (it was founded in 1743), in the last four years the state-owned firm Casa de Moneda Chile has gone ‘from the physical to the cloud’.

The Central Bank of Paraguay has announced that a new series of guarani banknotes is underway, with the preparations likely to take more than a year.

Currency News™ spoke to Malcolm McDowell, CEO of NPA, and Neil Sanders, Managing Director of CCL Secure, about their story, how their cooperation works, and the environmental as well as commercial benefits of their physical proximity.

One of the defining characteristics of the mint industry, compared with the banknote industry, is the level of cooperation between the various producers. Another has been its apparent stability. Perhaps the two are related.

This year the profile of sustainability has increased, with climate volatility evident in many countries. Last year’s white paper on the cash industry's work showed that much has been done and this industry has been doing good work for some time.

Glory Global Solutions is acknowledged as the leader in teller cash recycling solutions, with 100,000 units installed worldwide and a market share, according to RBR, of 56%.

The death of HM Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September was a time of mourning and reflection on her remarkable life as the second longest reigning monarch in history.

Spectra Systems provides security technologies for use in banknotes, product authentication and gaming using integrated solutions comprised of engineered materials for authentication, and hardware and software systems which verify the unique signatures of the authentication materials.

The Egyptian Cabinet has approved a proposal to conclude a partnership agreement between the Public Treasury, the Egyptian Mint Authority, and the UK’s Royal Mint to establish a new British-Egyptian mint.

Chief Marilynn (Lynn) Malerba has been sworn in as the new Treasurer of the United States. Prior to becoming Treasurer, she served as the 18th Chief of the Mohegan Tribe – the first Native American to serve in this position.

Swiss-based SICPA and New-Mexico nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

Cash Visibility – the Federal Reserve’s program to automate the cash supply chain – is at the point of rolling out.

Bank Indonesia has designed a completely new series of banknotes, with significantly improved security features over the previous designs, selecting the nation’s Independence Day, 17 August, to launch them.

Komori Corporation has announced that the Komori Global Parts Center has been relocated to the Tsukuba Plant site to ensure a more stable parts supply in Japan and overseas.

Bank Indonesia has issued a new series of banknotes in seven denominations to coincide with the country’s 77th anniversary of independence.

Currency Publications Ltd, publishers of Currency News™ and Cash & Payment News™, will be launching a new monthly newsletter – Coin & Mint News™ – this October.

The International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA) is to be wound up, 12 years after the organisation was founded, at the first International Banknote Designers Conference in Geneva in 2010.

Introducing automated coin deposit machines is the latest initiative from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to promote the re-circulation of coins and persuade Filipinos to use them in their daily transactions.

Giesecke+Devrient has pledged to replace all virgin plastic in its payment card products with recycled industrial compostable or biodegradable products by 2030 at the latest.

Despite headline currency in circulation at near record levels, A$102.22 billion on issue at the end of July 2022 (that’s 27% higher than the July 2019 level), substantially less cash is being used in Australia.

The Banknote Ethics Initiative (BnEI), launched in 2013, now has 15 members, after the Spanish banknote printer and papermaker Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre – Real Casa de la Moneda was formally accredited by the BnEI Accreditation Council.

Last November we ran an article on a research project by Pakistan Security Printing Corporation to evaluate the parameters for composting waste from banknote production by mixing it with manure. This time it’s the turn of the State Bank of Pakistan, and what it does in terms of dealing with banknotes at the end of their life.

Most of us will have our own experience of what it is like to be in a situation where you can neither access cash nor pay with it.

India is to take a further step and future-proof its plans for self-sufficiency in currency production with the construction of a new banknote paper mill, at a cost of INR 25 billion ($310 million).

Companies in our sector are not only working to reduce their environmental footprint and contribute to a greener future, in some cases their solutions are being used to further it.

Threads have developed into a security arsenal all on their own. But to provide a truly effective defence against the counterfeiter, the technical specification and design must be integrated perfectly.

There was palpable shock and surprise in the industry at the news that Portals is to wind down production of banknote paper, focusing instead on non-banknote paper and features.

The Banque de France (BdF) has announced that the construction of a new banknote printworks on the same site as its paper mill in Vic-le-Comte (Europafi) is going ahead, and will be completed in 2026 at a cost of €220 million.

In our February feature on counterfeiting, Duncan Reid covered adversarial analysis. In this article he reviews the classification of counterfeiters, illustrated by case studies at each level.

Austrian foil manufacturer Hueck Folien has erected a new 400 kWp photovoltaic Wp system on its Baumgartenberg premises, with an output equivalent to the energy consumption of 100 households.

Compared with the resources of the cashless lobby in advocating for a digital payments future, those of the lobby supporting cash are miniscule. That isn’t to say that there aren’t organisations supporting the case for cash, but their activities are largely centered around specific regions or sectors.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has recently commented about options for its denominational structure, following ‘fake news’ that it is planning to introduce a new high denomination R500 note and R10 coin.

It’s official – Croatia has been given the green light to adopt the euro as its currency. On 12 July the Council of the European Union formally approved its accession to the euro area on 1 January 2023.

On 26 July, De La Rue announced that it is terminating its ten year supply agreement with Portals Paper five years early, an agreement that formed part of private equity-backed management buyout of the paper maker in 2018.

Several studies have revealed how overt security features are not only more efficient, but are easy to recognise and authenticate, when they are well integrated in the banknote design.

In May, we covered Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions’ two offerings for app-based banknote authentication and education. This month it is the turn of two more – from De Nederlandsche Bank and Orell Füssli Security Printing.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has launched a special series of coins to mark the country’s 75th anniversary of independence, at a special ceremony organised by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Currency Affairs.

SICPA’s IMMERSION event this year, which took place via a series of one-day workshops spanning April and May, focused on the future and features, with innovation as the constant theme throughout.

27 June is World ATM Day. On this day 55 years ago, the world’s first 24/7 cash machine, or Automated Teller Machine as it was later to become known, was unveiled in London.

WaveFront Technology – a California-based supplier of nano and micro-structured tools, coatings and films for the security, lighting, aerospace, and display markets – used the Banknote & Currency Conference in February as an opportunity to debut its new new portfolio of security features for currency and other security applications.

Whilst Crane Currency is, or rather was, first and foremost a paper maker, it is also the developer of the micro-optics feature MOTION® and its derivatives for threads and, more recently, for surface-applied stripes.

High Security Printing™ EMEA took place 13-15 June in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital on the Baltic Sea. Famed for its ‘white nights’ in mid-summer, when the sun hardly sets, Tallinn is the country’s cultural hub.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has received approval for a budget of at least P25 billion ($450 million) for the construction of its new Currency Production Facility (CPF) in a 31.2 hectare complex in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.

Counterfeiting of Australian banknotes is approaching its lowest level in a decade. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has carried out an analysis of the factors playing a role in this decline and quantified their effects. The report – Recent Trends in Counterfeiting – has been published in its June Bulletin.

Casa de Moneda Argentina (CMA) is in the midst of a technology transformation programme involving the recruitment and training of new staff, modernisation of both its production facilities and the acquisition of new equipment, among them the latest SPARK Flow® module for the NotaScreen. It has also invested in an upgrade of Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions’ ONE design software to the latest 2.1 version.

Banknote lifetime values need to be treated with care because it is easy to form misleading conclusions. The biggest challenge is ensuring that a fair comparison is being made and that comparisons are made on representative data. The before and after scenarios should be like-for-like.

Not many people know that Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering (Kusters) used to make fluorescent lamp recycling equipment for the electronics giant Philips, glass recycling for the brewer Heineken and coffee pod recycling for Sara Lee.

In the December edition of Industry Watch, the focus was on the implications of a new infectious COVID variant, Omicron. In the March edition, the focus switched to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia and the implications, if the war continued, of a global fuel, food, fertilizer and aluminium crisis. This on top of the shortages of many goods used in manufacturing – a legacy of COVID.

Komori Corporation has published its financial figures for 2021/22, reporting a return to profit and an increase of 22% in consolidated net sales compared to the previous year.

CCL Secure has achieved a 26% reduction in carbon emissions per tonne of product at its Wigton site in England since 2018. With the support of sustainability consultants Verco, CCL Secure has reduced manufacturing emissions across all three scopes of greenhouse gases, without the inclusion of carbon offsets and market based instruments.

Currency News™ has published annual updates on the banknote developments at the global level since September 2017. The hope that this year’s update would illustrate some kind of return to a new normal in cash demand has proved to be unrealistic.

Jean-Claude Brou, President of the Economic Community of West African States, has said that the community has agreed to delay the launch of the ECO to 2027.

In April, the Central Bank of Tunisia completed the introduction of its latest series of four banknotes, the 11th since its inception in 1958, making it one of Africa’s most prolific banknote issuers.

Both before, during and since the two years of COVID, the industry has become very aware of what has become known as the cash paradox, identified as the continued growth of cash in circulation compared with a country’s GDP, despite its declining use for payments.

The Governor of the Sveriges Riskbank, Stefan Ingves, will step down at the end of this year, to be replaced by the country’s chief financial regulator, Erik Thedéen.

The Asia Cash Cycle Seminar returns to its live and in person format, after a three-year hiatus, taking place 5-7 September in Manila, 10 years after it was last held in the Philippines.

The Future of Cash conference, which returns this year as an in-person event taking place 14-16 September in Madrid, was the first of its kind to bring together all stakeholders involved in the cash cycle.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing EMEA conference.

The Bank of England has issued its Annual Report for 2022. The key themes relating to banknote issuance and management were the completion of the polymer series of banknotes with the issuance of the £50 banknote, actions to safeguard access to cash and deposit services and the environmental impact of banknote operations.

Ulster Bank, one of Northern Ireland’s three note issuing bank, has now released its new £50, the design of which focuses on the province’s industries and the achievements of women in Northern Ireland.

The Central Bank of Barbados has unveiled the designs of its new polymer banknote series, which will be introduced on 5 December, two days after it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The construction of the Banco de España’s new printworks for IMBISA just outside Madrid – the first new state-owned printing plant in the EU in over 50 years – has now been completed, and work has started on moving in the new equipment.

De La Rue’s sales fell marginally in 2021/22 – revenue (non IFRS) of £375 million and operating profit of £36.4 million were down 3.3% and 4.5% respectively on the previous year.

In his review of the Global Currency Forum, Wolfram Seidemann, Chairman of the ICA, compared the priorities of the cash industry in the past with today. Then, he said, the key priorities were security, efficiency and quality of notes is circulation. Fast forward several years, and the priorities look very different now.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued its annual report for 2021-22. The backdrop for the year was India’s second and third wave of the pandemic, which affected operations.

2021 was a great year for the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic, with record sales, profits, and a healthy $78.9 returned to the Canadian government, compared with $20 million the previous year.

The official launch ceremony for a new security document printing facility has taken place in Entebbe in Uganda. It will be owned and operated by the Uganda Security Printing Company, which was set up in 2018 as a joint venture between the state-owned Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation and Veridos, the German provider of integrated identity solutions.

The history of French banknote and security printer Oberthur Fiduciaire dates back 175 years, being founded by Francois-Charles Oberthur in 1842.

Koenig and Bauer Banknote Solutions has just completed a series of showcase events for customers called ‘Open House’. Structured as a morning of presentations followed by equipment demonstrations, the day was focused on the practical, the tangible and improving those elements of business that are within the control of K&B BNS.

A new security thread featuring micro-optics was launched at the Global Currency Forum by Portals. Called Motus, the thread is the first security product to be launched by Portals following its acquisition last year of the security features and thread business Fabriano from Fedrigoni.

Oberthur Fiduciaire has launched a technology for threads in the form of RELIEF™ – which offers striking bas-relief 3D effects in what the company terms a major advance in security features for threads and unlike anything else on the market.

Among the customary technical presentations and product launches at conferences, the one given by Komori at the recent Global Currency Forum on the topic of the metaverse was very much ‘out of the box’. Here Steve Craig of Komori explains what the metaverse is, and how Komori is looking at harnessing it for banknote production.

The inaugural Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum, which will take place 15-16 November in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh, will share best practice, promote cooperation and address specific environmental challenges and solutions in the cash and payments arena.

After a three year gap, the Coin Conference returns this October to Amsterdam, in what will be the sixth edition of the event, and the only one of its kind to focus on coins as part of cash strategies in circulation from the perspective of currency issuers.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina Argentina has showcased the designs of its new series of banknotes, in which the images of indigenous fauna and their habitats that feature on the current series will be replaced by famous Argentineans.

The primary focus of the 6th IBDC taking place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 24-27 October 2022 is ‘Design Community Reconnect’.

Nominations will be open on 8 June for the 16th round of the ‘Excellence in Currency: 2022 Coin Awards’, run by IACA (the International Association of Currency Affairs) and sponsored by Currency News.

The last major industry event to take place before COVID hit was High Security Printing™ EMEA, which was held in Lisbon in March 2020. The latest HSP EMEA opens it doors from 13-15 June in Tallinn in Estonia, renowned at that time of year for its ‘White Nights’ when the sun scarcely sets.

It was a long-time coming, but following two years of delays and a last-minute change of venue, the inaugural Global Currency Forum finally went ahead in early May in Port Aventura in Spain.

The global independent think tank CashEssentials has announced the launch of the CashTech Innovation Awards, to recognise innovations that will facilitate access to and acceptance of cash.

Giesecke+ Devrient launched its Green Banknote Initiative earlier this year. At the Global Currency Forum, it followed this up with the presentation of the Green Banknote - a physical token of this initiative printed on Hybrid ADDvance®.

Benjamin Diokno, Governor of the Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas, will join the incoming government as Finance Minister. His replacement will be Felipe Medalla.

BP Security is the new name for the security papermaker in Brazil, the only one in Latin America capable of producing banknote-grade mould made paper, formerly owned by Fedrigoni.

Following the return of in-person events, one company that has been prominent with its range of eye-catching optically variable features is IQ Structures, which specialises in lithography techniques, 3D nano-printing and industrial replication of nanostructured materials.

De La Rue launched the next effects in its IGNITE® thread portfolio at the Banknote & Currency Conference in February. IGNITE belongs to the fast-growing combinational thread category that is becoming extremely popular amongst central banks that issue paper banknotes.

The Banco de México has continued its award-winning streak with the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) Banknote of the Year award for 2021 for the 50 peso. It won the same award for 2020 for the new 100 peso. And both notes recently earned it the HSP Regional Banknote of the Year award.

Crane Co – the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate – has announced plans to separate the company into two independent publicly-traded companies.

As described in the Banknote of the Month feature in the February issue of Currency News™, Kazakhstan’s new 20,000 tenge is memorable on a number of fronts – not least because the use of the Durasafe® substrate enabled the first ever application of a stripe in a vertical orientation, but also because it is the world’s first circulating note to incorporate SICPA’s new SPARK Flow® feature.

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish and Recycle are the five widely-accepted elements of a circular economy. This article from CCL Secure covers three of them.

The Central Bank of Tunisia has issued two new banknotes – the 5 and 50 dinars – which will co-circulate with the existing versions. The 50 dinar features the former Prime Minister, Hédi Nouira, and the 5 dinar a portrait of the engineer, agronomist and activist Slaheddine Amami.

There is a lot going on in the Philippines at the moment. Currency News™ caught up with Deputy Governor Mamomet Tangonan at the recent Banknote & Currency Conference to find out more.

At the Banknote & Currency Conference in February, Swiss substrate manufacturer Landqart revealed new research it has been carrying out on how to dispose of banknotes at the end of their life in an environmentally sound way.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is moving its gold vault and banknote activities from its head office in Amsterdam to Camp New Amsterdam in Zeist, and is making good progress on the project, which is due to complete next year.

SICPA has unveiled the name for its new campus in Lausanne – unlimitrust. Formerly known as Square One, the aim of the new campus, the first of its kind, is to bring together diverse partners promoting the ‘Economy of Trust’, linking the security of the physical world with its digital counterpart in order to protect goods and people from the vulnerabilities created by today’s global digitalised economy and governance.

De La Rue has issued a trading update in which it said that it expects its full year operating profits to be in line with market expectations (these being based on the average published notes from Investec and Numis Securities). Net debt is expected to be slightly better than market expectations of £75 million.

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2021 in financial terms as one of the most successful in its history. Sales of €2.38 billion were a 2.8% improvement on the previous year and almost back at the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

The European Council has adopted a recommendation by the European Commission on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of member states hosting people escaping the war in Ukraine.

Australia’s lower denomination coins will end up costing more to make than their face value, according to a report by the research outfit Morningstar, thanks to soaring metal prices.

After several years of losses, the Mint of Finland has reported a significant increase in sales and return to profit for 2021. Consolidated revenue increased by 45% to €83 million, due largely to a good order backlog at the beginning the year.

In their mandate to help maintain economic stability and confidence in the currency, central banks must continually evaluate the cash cycle imperatives and pressures for business and community in their countries.

In early June Currency Research will host its first in person Cash Cycle Seminar since COVID forced a postponement of the planned March 2020 event in Amsterdam.

Across industry publications, conferences and reporting, sustainability now sits alongside other key topics such as security, technical excellence, efficiency, value for money etc. This industry has done a great deal of work and made a real difference in its operations across the key areas where it affects the environment.

The Mint Directors Conference is normally held every two years, providing an opportunity for discussions, information-sharing and debate within and about the industry.

The UK’s Royal Mint has announced plans to build a new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, to recover gold from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The Central Bank of Uzbekistan issued a new series last year, based on the theme of the ‘Great Silk Road’ – the network of trade routes which played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West.

Last month, we covered the annual results of five of the major companies in the cash sector – Brinks, Loomis, NCR, Diebold Nixdorf and Crane Co. All bar one reported an increase in both sales and profits. This month is the turn of Spectra Systems, Orell Füssli and Prosegur, where the results are more mixed.

One of the major challenges facing every business today is to operate sustainably. But it’s not enough simply to have a stack of policies, fine words, and good intentions to hand. Actions need to demonstrate that the policies are being put into action.

In the December edition of Industry Watch, the focus was on COVID, and the emergence of a new variant that was a major blow to the anticipated return to relative normality.

The switch from paper to polymer banknotes in the Caribbean is gathering speed, with two countries announcing in March that they will be making the change.

The decade-defining global pandemic, climate-driven disasters and economic disruptions have all had a profound impact on our personal, professional and social lives.

Ulster Bank, one of Northern Ireland’s three note issuing banks, has unveiled the design of its new vertically-orientated £50, which is inspired by the women of the province and is being printed on polymer.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji has issued a commemorative $7 banknote to celebrate the achievements of its Rugby 7s teams at the Tokyo Olympics, where the men’s and women’s teams picked up a gold and a bronze medal respectively.

Special awards have been made to a number of newly introduced banknotes that have demonstrated outstanding technical sophistication and excellence in design and security.

Following on from the successful trio of Banknote Conference, Currency Conference and Digital Currency Conference in February, Currency Research is preparing for their next in-person event, the EMEA Cash Cycle Seminar.

The organisers of the Global Currency Forum (GCF) confirm they are ready to launch the first event for the global currency industry from the industry’s leading suppliers, the GCF partners who represent the entire life cycle of currency.

After two years of COVID inflicted disruptions, Reconnaissance International was able to restart the acclaimed series of High Security Printing Conferences with a fiesta feel in Mexico City.

Ida Wolden Bache, currently Acting Governor of Norges Bank, has now been appointed Governor, after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced he would not take on the role, his appointment having been announced in early February as the successor to Øystein Olsen.

Orell Füssli Security Printing and AUGENTIC’s Connected Banknote – the UTOPIAN DUAL – won the Advancement of Digital Currency Award at the Digital Currency Conference in Washington DC last month, which took place immediately after the Banknote & Currency Conference.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipians, the Central Bank of Costa Rica, the East Caribbean Central Bank and De La Rue were winners in four of the Central Banking Awards 2022, presented annually by the Central Banking Journal and which number over 30 categories.

In Russia and in Ukraine people have turned to cash, with large queues at bank branches and ATMs. The National Bank of Ukraine enacted a temporary cash withdrawal limit of 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia per day — the equivalent of about $3,339 – and both countries have imposed capital controls.

Optical security feature and foil manufacturer KURZ has published a report – Communication on Progress – which presents the company’s sustainability performance to date in detail and also discusses its goals and plans.

According to Giesecke+Devrient, the sustainability revolution has accelerated to embrace an ever-growing range of environmental and social issues.

The Reserve Bank of India has opened a new security ink manufacturing unit, VARNIKA, which will be operated by its subsidiary Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited in Mysore.

The Swiss National Bank has conducted a Life Cycle Analysis on its 9th series of banknotes. The study looked only at those elements of the life cycle directly under the control of the SNB, the manufacture, wholesale distribution and disposal of notes.

The Royal Mint has announced a partnership with Quintet Private Bank to introduce the use of recycled gold in an exchange-traded commodity (ETC).

Amongst the sector of the cash community involved in cash handling technology, Glory has led the way in teller automation and recycling systems, and although headquartered in Asia (Japan), has a global footprint.

When handling cash, we normally glance at each banknote for less than a second. Central banks and banknote issuers are coming to realise that this brief glimpse provides a crucial opportunity for public authentication.

De La Rue has recently submitted targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with limiting global temperature increases to no more than 1.5°C.

As has been well documented, sensational and alarmist claims in the media at the outset of the pandemic that handling cash transfers COVID has done long term and potentially irreparable damage to public confidence.

KURZ has been a pioneer in the use of diffractive optical anti-counterfeit features on banknotes since its earliest developments on the Australian dollar and the Austrian shilling. Its acquisition of OVD Kinegram (OVDK) in 1999 added proprietary optical features to its existing strengths in materials technology.

In 2019, the Central Bank of the Bahamas issued the $50 banknote in its new CRISP Evolution series, which used Durasafe® substrate from Landqart and included a RAPID® windowed thread from Crane Currency.

The Bank of Guyana has launched a new $2,000 banknote to mark the 55th anniversary of Guyana’s independence from the UK, in 1966. The release, which was delayed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the first Guyanese banknote to use polymer substrate.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan is renowned for its early adoption of high-tech security and innovative design, and has established itself as a testing ground for new features, with these trialled on commemorative and house notes before being adopted on circulating notes.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions is holding a series of one-day events, which will take place from 26-29 April and 8-12 May at its premises in Lausanne, Switzerland. Live presentations will be organised across sustainability, modularity and digitalisation.

According to CCL Secure, the SPARTAN banknote has been engineered specifically for the note/coin boundary and is the result of researchers creating not only a brand new kind of polymer but also reimagining the banknote production process.

There are many functional and secure features available that meet the needs of the various cash cycles, banknote issuing authorities and end users. One such feature is the taggant, which overcomes the challenges of the degradation of visible security features in that it continues to perform even when the note is subject to extensive wear and tear.

Meta Materials Inc, a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites and new owner of Nanotech Security, previewed a new technology from its security products business – KolourOptik® Stripe – at the Banknote & Currency Conference.

Last December Brinks disclosed its three year strategic plan and 2024 financial targets, with a major focus on new digital cash payment solutions. According to CEO Doug Pertz, ‘Brink’s is evolving from a route-based logistics company with growing organic revenue and expanding margins into a key player in the broader payments ecosystem - with a focus on digital cash payment solutions.'

Former Prime Minister of Norway and NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has been appointed for a six-year term as Governor of Norges Bank, replacing Øystein Olsen who is retiring. He won’t take up the position until later in the year, when his term at NATO expires. Deputy Governor Ida Wolden Bache will act as Interim Governor in the meantime.

As part of its modernisation programme, Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) has commissioned new banknote printing lines at both of its printworks - Currency Note Press, Nashik and Bank Note Press, Dewas.

Canadian security services provider GardaWorld, the world’s largest privately owned provider of security, cash and risk management service, has announced the launch of Sesami, a new cash ecosystem performance and technology company that will operate independently of its parent.

The first day of the Banknote & Currency Conference, 22 February, saw the presentation of the latest International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) Excellence in Currency Awards. Out of the 39 nominations, a shortlist of 15 was drawn up by the IACA Awards Committee for each of the four categories covered by the awards. These were then put to a ballot of IACA members.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi has issued a new high denomination 5,000 kwacha banknote, to relieve pressure on the 2,000 kwacha, which accounts for 80% of currency in circulation. An upgraded version of the 2,000 will also be issued shortly.

War is brutal and yet here we are with war in Europe. Unbelievable. Yet again though, it underlines the need for cash. The run up to the war saw cyber-attacks on the Ukrainian ATM network and now the invasion has started the internet is not guaranteed, let alone power. Once again, cash is king.

One the sessions at the Banknote & Currency Conference was ‘Perception Studies: Producing Actionable Information to Support Data-Driven Decision Making’, in the context of: what are the most effective features on a banknote? What do people use to authenticate them? What captures their attention and how do we know?

The Banknote & Currency Conference was the first major industry event to take place in person since the start of the pandemic. The four day event, followed by the one-day inaugural Digital Currency Conference, welcomed more than 450 delegates from 180 organisations and 53 countries.

February is when several of the leading listed companies in cash report their annual results for the previous year. In 2019, all bar one reported strong results and optimistic outlooks. Needless to say, this was before COVID struck, and the optimism was quickly overturned in 2020 as the pandemic took its toll.

All too often notifications arrive about a new study into an aspect of the cash industry, the cash cycle or payments. The trouble is that if it is written by an industry-insider, the competitive value is so high that the document has to talk in bland generalisations.

When a central bank is designing a new series or upgrading the security of the existing designs how can it be certain that the security features selected will be resilient against counterfeiting? How do they choose from the many features and technologies on offer?

Banknote durability is an ongoing topic of interest for central banks. More durable banknotes have a reduced impact on the environment and save the central bank money because they need replacing less often.

At the European Cash Cycle last autumn, the presentation by Josef Vrana, Senior Banknote Issuance Expert, Directorate Banknotes for the European Central Bank (ECB), covered euro cash trends and the effect of COVID-19 to date.

The Banco de España has issued a press release about meeting the European Central Bank’s (ECB) waste goal for banknotes. It puts this in the context of the ECB’s wider programme.

The Bank of Guyana has announced that it will shortly be issuing a new $2,000 banknote on polymer to commemorate the 55th Anniversary of Independence.

The International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA) has finalised the agenda for the 6th International Banknote Designers Conference that will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 24-27 October 2022.

Optimism towards the end of last year that the pandemic was running its course have been frustrated by the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID. But while some events have been thwarted, others are going ahead as planned.

Organisers of the High Security Printing Conferences (HSP), Reconnaissance International, have announced the programme for the upcoming HSP Latin America event.

The team behind the multi-award winning cash cycle analytics platform DLR Analytics™ have announced a major upgrade to the existing software.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions, a pioneer in computer design software with the launch of its ONE Security system in 2001, has announced the arrival of version 2.1 with a raft of new features and capabilities.

Work has now started on the first in the HUMANIA series of banknotes, which are being produced to raise money to support people who have been most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) and Papierfabrik Louisenthal have been working on reducing the environmental impact of their banknote production and cash cycle related activities for many years.

Banknote authentication and security software provider Spectra Systems Corporation has announced three new contract awards, generating $700,000 of additional unforecasted revenue for the 2022 calendar year.

De La Rue has announced a trading update on the financial year ending March 2022, as well as an update of progress on its Turnaround Plan, which unsurprisingly has been impacted by the pandemic.

Russian state printer and mint Goznak has launched its own banknote counting and sorting machine – the BARS-S5. This follows the acquisition last year of BIS (which stands for Bank Innovation Systems), with whom the new machine was co-developed. The first order has already been received from the Central Bank of Russia.

Ton Roos, who was appointed Director, Banknotes at the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2008, retired on 31 January. Currency News™ spoke to him about the challenges and achievements of his career in the ECB.

The Bank of Thailand will launch a new 20 baht note on 24 March, marking the transition to polymer of the country’s most widely used denomination, which accounts for 30% of all Thai banknotes in circulation.

The Bank of Albania has put into circulation new versions of the 500 lekë and 2,000 lekë, thereby completing its new series which also includes 200, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 lekë.

As part of our series of articles around the world to assess the growing trend to digital payments and what these countries are doing to ensure ongoing access to cash in a less-cash world, this month it’s the turn of New Zealand.

On 1 January 1999, 11 EU countries fixed their exchange rates, adopted a shared monetary policy under the European Central Bank, and launched their new common currency. The euro was born as an electronic currency.

Flights have been booked, hotel reservations have been made and final preparations are being made so that, after two years apart, Currency Research can bring the majority of the industry back together for some long-overdue discussions, professional networking, and a lively exchange of information and views.

In October 2021, the Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBB) released its new $100 banknote, completing the roll-out of its CRISP (Counterfeit Resistant Integrated Security Product) Evolution series which it began back in 2016.

We have covered a number of initiatives by central banks and suppliers (individually or collectively through their associations) to reduce the environmental impact of cash, and will continue to do so.