Globalisation is the result of the ability to move and communicate easily with others leading eventually to global cultural, political and economic integration.

Prosegur Compañia de Seguridad (Prosegur) and its listed subsidiary Prosegur Cash have reached an agreement for the acquisition, by the former, of most of the process outsourcing and value-added services business developed by Prosegur AVOS, which was founded and is owned by the latter.

Cash & Payment News™ this month follows two main themes, payments and cash in a pandemic, along with a range of CashTech and other stories.

G4S shareholders have accepted a £3.8 billion from Allied Universal, bringing to a close a months-long battle between two firms to take control of the security services company.

The Federal Reserve of New York has announced the appointment of Naureen Hassan as its First Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). She replaces Michael Strine, who retired at the end of February.

When a polymer banknote is produced, a number of opacification layers are printed onto the core substrate so that it can accept the traditional banknote printing processes such as litho, intaglio, screen and letterpress printing.

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) issued its new $5 polymer banknote into circulation this month, completing the transition of its new family onto SAFEGUARD® polymer banknotes.

China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM) is the world’s largest manufacturer for banknotes and coins – not only producing more currency than any other printer or mint, but also offering the full gamut of production and security technology through a network of subsidiaries dedicated to R&D, features, substrates and ink, minting, printing and processing equipment, as well as production itself.

Banknotes have become highly sophisticated, with a massive range of machine readable features to fight the counterfeit threat. At the same time, says Louisenthal, it has also been creating innovative Level 1 features, to stop the counterfeit threat at the first pass, which are memorable, simple to use, visible even under poor lighting conditions and which, at the same time, also send a positive theme into the local community.

Actemium Cournon Engineering is a subsidiary of VINCI Energies, specialising in industrial engineering that accelerates manufacturing integration and control using new technologies. Based 15km from the Banque de France’s printing plant, it was hired to work on five key projects, two in the paper mill and three in the printworks.

Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering (Kusters) – which specialises in banknote destruction systems - has expanded its portfolio with its new range of Air Purification systems, in response to the importance of a healthy indoor environment in offices and cash processing areas.

Competition creates energy and change. It can be argued that 2020 was the year where the impact of there being two suppliers of polymer substrate in the banknote market started to be seen. The take-up of polymer by central banks accelerated, while investment brought new security features to market, more capacity and more recycling capability.

The theme of February’s Cash and Payment News (CPN) is very much on the future of cash and payments, considering as it does two sides of a coin, namely evidence of cash under pressure and the robust activity underway to keep it available, useful and preferred.

Prosegur, including its cash business Prosegur Cash, is the first security group to sign up to ‘The Climate Pledge’, a commitment to achieve net zero carbon by 2040. The Climate Pledge initiative was created by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019 and 53 companies are now signed up to it.

The Central Bank of Libya has issued a new 5 dinar note on De La Rue’s SAFEGUARD® polymer substrate, its launch coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the 17 February 2011 Revolution. It is the country’s second polymer note, the first – the 1 dinar – having been issued in 2019.

January and February are when six of the leading listed companies in cash report their annual results for the previous year. The time last year, all but one reported strong results and optimistic outlooks.

ln celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Modern Omani Renaissance, the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has launched a new series. Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, sharing its borders with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The first national currency was introduced in 1970, replacing the Gulf rupee. Its current name, the Omani rial, was adopted in 1972. Coins were introduced earlier, in 1941.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), something of a buzzword in ‘corporate speak’, is defined as a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable—to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. Which sounds great, as indeed it is. But isn’t really anything new.

At the Future of Cash conference, Chris Forero-Slee introduced his business, Shrap. As he said, he does not expect to be popular with those who make their living from or who like coins. Shrap (the company presumably takes its name from shrapnel, ie. fragments of shells or bullets but also a colloquial term for small change) is a solution that offers an alternative to coins, which they regard as a ‘pain point’ in payments.

COVID-19 has impacted cash usage in a number of ways. Some were inevitable, such as a reduction in use due to the move to online shopping and lockdowns. But one was avoidable and has unfairly and negatively affected both the use and perception of cash, and that was that it carried, and was capable of transmitting, the coronavirus.