This year’s prestigious Regional Banknote of the Year Awards for Asia were presented at a special ceremony during the High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia conference earlier this month.

The Hologram Image Register, established by the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) to help safeguard hologram copyright and underpin the use of holograms in secure documents and products, has been extended to include all optically variable (or active) features, and relaunched as the Security Image Register.

Currency News™ spoke to Mr Junya Shimada – Executive Operating Officer and Group General Manager – about the company’s foundations, its current focus, its philosophy and how it plans to leverage this to go forward in an ever-changing social and technological landscape.

All of the key themes facing the banknote industry were covered at the High Security Printing Asia conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, held at the beginning of December.

The Bank of Japan and the Finance Ministry have announced that the redesigned 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000 yen banknotes will enter circulation on 3 July 2024, which marks the first update of the notes in around two decades.

Danmarks Nationalbank has carried out an analysis of the role of cash in a low cash usage society. 10% of payments are still made in cash and there are groups in society for whom cash is important whether out of necessity or choice. The result is that changes will be made to the currency.

All eyes on Africa as Egypt hosts spectacular ACF; Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) teams with SONECT for access to cash...

In November 1993, the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed a decree ‘On the introduction of the national currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan’. Following this, the tenge became the official currency of the country.

The Central Bank of the UAE has issued a new 500 dirham banknote – the fifth in its new all-polymer series, which has been progressively rolled out since 2022.

Euro banknotes are set to be adorned with either rivers and birds, or images of European culture, as the Governing Council of European Central Bank (ECB) whittles down options for the first redesign of the currency since its inception.

In this issue, we describe the industry’s newest banknote production facility – IMBISA in Spain. Another example of a new printworks that has also built innovation in from the start is Guangzhou Banknote Printing Co Ltd (GBPC), the seventh and newest of China Banknote Printing and Minting’s banknote factories.

Readers will recall in earlier editions that we addressed a number of significant highlights following G+D`s Currency Technology Symposium held in July. This is the final story, focusing on key elements of the day dedicated to Louisenthal, G+D’s substrate and feature subsidiary.

The focus of this month’s coverage of cash information in central bank annual reports is Asia, looking specifically at Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan and New Zealand.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has confirmed that it will allow old banknotes that were due to be phased out in December to remain legal tender indefinitely, following a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court.

The 2023 CashTech Innovation Awards, arranged by the thinktank CashEssentials and sponsored by Sesami, were presented at the Future of Cash conference, which took place 6-8 November in Istanbul.

Ibrahim Stevens has become Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone. He has been First Deputy Governor since July 2014, and succeeds Kelfala Kallon.

Established in 2020 to support national law enforcement authorities in their efforts to fight financial and economic crimes and aid international cooperation, Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) has recently released its first threat assessment on the matter.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is seeking to standardise the parameters used by banknote sorting machines to ensure uniform fitness standards across the different models and makes of equipment being used.

The Intergraf Currency + Identity Conference and Exhibition took place from 18-20 October in Bilbao, Spain. The Bilbao Exhibition Centre hosted this year’s 940-plus participants from the two branches of the industry, of which more than 170 were from central banks, government and law enforcement, along with 107 exhibitors.

Banknote security features won two out of the five categories in the 2023 Excellence in Holography Awards, presented by the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) at the recent annual online Holography Conference.