Meta Materials Inc has been a pioneer in banknote OVD technology for the past decade with innovations in micro-, nano- and now plasmonic structures. The company has also developed in-house secure foil production so that it can offer banknote stripes direct to customers.

The Banknote Ethics Initiative (BnEI), which is 10 years old this year, now has 15 members after Oumolat Security Printing LLC was formally accredited by the BnEI Accreditation Council.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the creation in June 1973 of the ouguiya (MRU) as the national currency of the West African state of Mauritania, the Banque Centrale de Mauritanie is issuing a commemorative MRU 50 banknote on not one but three different substrates.

According to China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM), it has been working on sustainable development for some time and has developed a range of solutions to increase the use of clean energy and efficiency.

In its annual report for 2022-23, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has provided details of the financial performance of its minting and banknote printing subsidiaries South African Mint (SAM) and South African Bank Note (SABN).

In this, the latest in our monthly summary of central bank annual reports, we look at Thailand, India, Peru, Tunisia, Timor-Leste, Ukraine and Hong Kong.

Banknote users see a holistic banknote when they transact but our industry doesn’t always think holistically. A significant proportion of our time is focussed on individual components and, whilst these are incredibly important, we risk overlooking the essential role of integration in unlocking the next wave of banknote innovation.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has finally approved the merger of Australia’s two largest cash in transit companies – Linfox Armaguard and Prosegur Australia. The merger will create a single cash logistics provider, operating under the Armaguard name, with an estimated market share of more than 90%.

‘Make in India’, the long-running government-sponsored initiative to ‘on-shore’ production and reduce imports, is now resulting in Indian entities becoming global providers.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, has published a proposal on the legal tender status of euro banknotes and coins. The proposal is part of the Single Currency legislative package which also includes a legal text on a digital euro.

The Currency Conference took part in Mexico City in May 2023, overlapping with the Digital Currency Conference. This report is the first of two summaries of the conference.

NCR Corporation is the market leader in self-service banking and payment solutions, with a turnover of $7.83 billion in 2022, more than double that of its nearest rival, Diebold Nixdorf (see below).

SICPA has formally inaugurated the unlimitrust campus, the world’s first centre of excellence dedicated to the Economy of Trust which is assembling innovation players into one single community.

If you are responsible for the design and issue of a new banknote, you face a daunting task. As the latest edition of Currency News™ suggests, it can be a complex and unenviable undertaking. Frankly, good luck!

Whilst NCR appears to be going from strength to strength, the same cannot be said of Diebold Nixdorf, No 2 in the marketplace.

The independent think tank CashEssentials has launched two new initiatives – the Cash Academic Network and the Cash Associations’ Forum – both aimed at building bridges within different groups of the cash community.

De la Rue has announced its results for the financial year ending March 2023. These were eagerly awaited following a trading update issued by the company April (see CN April 2023).

Design testing is not easy but is good practice. Ernesto Gonzalez Candela of Mexican firm UnderCurrency, which offers consulting services and products to assess and improve the performance of banknotes and coins, presented a new tool at the Optical and Digital Document Security conference in April to help central banks optimise their banknote designs and have confidence that they will perform in circulation.

At the Currency Conference in May, Dieter Sauter, Vice President & General Manager Value Printing for Bundesdruckerei, unveiled the concept behind the ‘Dark Banknote Series‘, and the first note in this series (ExNihilo), which is the result of the SIRALab initiative.

Nassau, the Bahamas was the spectacular setting for the 10th HSP (High Security Printing) Latin America conference, which welcomed 250 delegates from 118 organisations and 36 countries, over half from Latin America and the Caribbean.