De La Rue has recently provided a trading update, which indicates both a small (mid-single digit percentage) drop in profitability below market expectations (of £30-33 million) for 2022/23 but an uncertain outlook for 2023/24, with a potentially sharp reduction in profits. The share price fell 20% on the news.

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2022 as having a challenging business environment but one in which it has achieved strong results. The challenges have included rising energy, raw material and logistic costs, worldwide inflation, supply chain challenges, particularly for chips, and the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Whilst we have reported in the last two issues on broadly positive financial results for the cash management sector, the same cannot be said of the banknote production side of the industry, as De La Rue’s recent trading update shows.

In the start of a new series in Currency News, we will be providing a summary of each month of central bank annual reports, and in particular developments regarding cash – be it circulation, management or counterfeiting.

Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has won the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) Banknote of the Year award for 2022 for the 1,000 piso note, breaking the Banco of Mexico’s winning streak after it scooped the award for both 2020 and 2021.

In the February issue of Currency News, we covered the acquisition by Oberthur Fiduciare (OF) of two thirds of the shares of the Swedish micro-optics firm RollingOptics, signalling its intention to focus on the growing area of micro-optics for security features. But even before this acquisition, OF had launched Pulsar™.

Crane NXT has announced the completion of its separation from Crane Co., the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate, and its launch as an independent, publicly traded company.

Hungary is the latest country to intervene in the cash cycle to ensure ongoing access to cash for its citizens in light of declining usage, with a new regulation from Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) governing minimum requirements for the number of ATMs operated by commercial banks.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has halted its naira redesign programme, 10 days after the Supreme Court ruled that it hadn’t given sufficient notice to the public to exchange the old notes for new.

Komori Corporation is 100 years old this year and has recently published its annual integrated report for 2022 covering value creation, business strategies, sustainability and its corporate data.

As part of its Cash & Payments Sustainability Forum initiative, on 5 April Reconnaissance International will be joined in the first of a series of online seminars looking at end-of-life solutions for banknotes by FedCash® Services, Pakistan Security Printing Corporation and Giesecke+Devrient to talk about different ways of disposing of unfit cotton banknotes.

Renowned counterfeit expert Kerre Corbin has set up Kerrency Ltd – a new independent consultancy for the banknote industry to provide guidance and training to central banks, police agencies, commercial banks and security industry companies on counterfeiting issues.

Voith Group includes Voith Paper, which is well known in the banknote paper making world as the manufacturer of paper machines. In its 2022 Sustainability Report it gives details of its ‘Papermaking for Life’ programme designed to contribute to more sustainable paper production.

The Central Bank of The Bahamas was awarded the 2023 Public First Award during the event’s Appreciation Dinner on 14 March, in a ceremony at the Xara Lodge, Rabat, Malta.

Oumolat Security Printing, which began operations in 2016, is not only the industry’s newest banknote printing company. Located in Abu Dhabi, it is also the first in the Middle East, taking advantage of the strategic location to offer banknote printing and services to the world.

In the January issue of Currency News™, we covered the closure of Cash Processing Solution (CPS), the second supplier of high-speed sorting systems after Giesecke+Devrient, and the creation of a series of new entities to continue with the profitable software and services side of the business.

The Central Bank of Curaçao and St Maarten (CBCS) has said it expects that the introduction of the new Caribbean guilder will be completed in the second half of 2024. The new currency will replace the Netherlands Antillean guilder that has been in circulation since 1952.

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) has announced the finalists for the 2023 Excellence in Currency Awards, which are in four categories.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Note Printing Australia (NPA) were winners in three of the 25 Central Banking Awards 2023, which were announced recently.

Nanotechnology has been a fertile breeding ground for authentication devices – as structures that can be controlled at the nanoscale exhibit responses to light that are distinctive and near impossible to replicate.