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.

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.

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.

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%.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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

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.

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

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