Why do so many shops rely on the counterfeit detection pen to authenticate their paper banknotes?

The UK’s Cash Industry Environmental Charter Group (CIEC), which consists of more than 30 organisations active in cash working together to establish best practice and drive change, has reported on its progress.

Currency News™ sat down with Marilou in one of CBN’s three manufacturing facilities in Ottawa to find out more about the company, its markets, its unique strengths, and how she is managing to continue the legacy of her husband and put culture and people at the heart of everything CBN does.

NCR Corporation has successfully completed its planned separation into two publicly traded companies. NCR Atleos, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 17 October under the symbol NATL, has carved out the ATM and self-service banking part of NCR, whilst NCR Voyix is responsible for digital commerce.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) is continuing its strategy of innovating with partner companies.

The International Currency Association (ICA), representing the global currency sector, held its Annual General Meeting in Bilbao, Spain during the Intergraf Currency+Identity conference, and elected the Board for the next two years.

At the recent Mint Directors Conference in Ottawa, the Mint Directors Association (MDA) was formally announced. It has now been legally incorporated as a not-for-profit association, and is the successor to the MDC, the looser association of mint directors that has been in existence since 1962.

As published in July`s edition of Currency News, Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) held its Currency Technology Symposium 2023 that month in Munich, the main themes of which were resilience, hyper-efficiency and sustainability within the cash cycle, and the role of cash in today´s world.

The organisers of the High Security Printing™ (HSP) conferences, Reconnaissance International, have announced the programme for the upcoming HSP Asia event, which – after a four year absence due to COVID – finally takes place in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 4-6 December 2023.

Post COVID-19, following Manila in 2022, the Asia Cash Cycle Seminar (ICCOS) headed to Bangkok this year, organised by Currency Research with the Bank of Thailand as co-host.

Earlier this year, Oberthur Fiduciaire announced the acquisition of a 65.5% stake in Rolling Optics. The Swedish-based company uses micro-lens patterns to create 3D effects in film, and its technology already underpins some of the existing micro-optics security features on the market (see CN February 2023).

Until relatively recently, we ran a round-up of company results in the quarterly Industry Watch. We have replaced this with a periodic summary of central bank annual reports relating to cash, but continue to cover the companies in our sector with reviews of their interim and annual results.

Following the coverage of the iLearn partnership between Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) and Aflatoun International in last month’s Currency News™, an important event is coming up on the subject of financial literacy.

Over the course of the last four years, four currency series in the Caribbean have converted to polymer – starting with the East Caribbean dollar in 2019, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 2020, then Barbados in 2022 and, most recently, Jamaica this summer.

The London Climate Technology Show, which took place end September, was full of start-ups and other more established companies offering solutions to measure your environmental footprint, to offset your carbon, to sequester your carbon in the soil/ocean/trees etc. etc. etc.

The Federal Reserve has started a publicity campaign for its FedCash® E-Manifest Service. The new system is digitising a hitherto manual system for matching paper manifests for deposits and orders at Federal Reserve docks with a technology based on GSI US standards that enables scanning and the electronic exchange of data in real time.

Toshiba – the Japanese industrial conglomerate and one of only two producers of high speed currency processing systems – has announced that a ¥2 trillion ($14 billion) tender offer from private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) has ended in success, paving the way for the company to go private.

The Future of Cash Conference 2023 (Istanbul, 6-8 November) will kick-off with a research seminar organised by CashEssentials. International researchers from different fields will discuss whether cash qualifies as a public good or as a basic right, and the policy implications of this.

The Future of Cash conference typically attracts some 120 participants from central and commercial banks, CIT and cash management companies, academics and other cash cycle stakeholders. The 2023 event takes place 6-8 November in Istanbul, and the full agenda is now available.

In March, Currency News™ featured an interview with Dr Wolfram Seidemann, CEO of G+D Currency, on the topic of building a resilient cash infrastructure.