News in Brief

Brink’s Buys PAI Backing ATMs

Brink’s has bought PAI, Inc, the largest privately-held provider of ATM services in the US, for $213 million. PAI offers managed services and tools for ATM owner-operators, as well as owning its own ATMs. It writes its own software, providing cash management and maintenance solutions for ATMs.

Ownership of PAI, which looks after over 100,000 ATM service locations in the US, allows Brinks to offer its US customers ‘a complete range of ATM services, including full-service outsourcing, which increases the value of their ATM networks’.

In Europe, Brink’s has entered into agreements to take full ownership of 11,000 ATMs.

De La Rue on Course for Successful 2020/21

According to a trading update for 2020/21, De La Rue expects its adjusting operating profit for the year to be at the top end of the previously indicated £36-37 million range.

Moreover, end of year net debt of approximately £53 million is some £21 million lower than market expectations, due to lower capital expenditure during the year in line with adjustments to the timing of capital spend as the company’s Turnaround Plan has evolved.

Due to the positive outcome of the financial year, De La Rue has repaid all the money received from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

De La Rue has also stated that it will record non-cash exceptional charges of £13 million as a result of the closure of the banknote printing operations at its site in Gateshead in the UK in December.

Patent for Note Disinfection System

Spectra Systems has secured a US patent for its banknote disinfection process. The process can disinfect 5 million banknotes in under two hours and uses nitrogen to create an oxygen-free atmosphere, along with heat, to deactivate SARS-2 viruses (see CN March 2021).

According to Spectra, the patent is expected to be issued within six weeks, whilst other applications have been filed in other regions across the world.

Spectra has also reported that a sensor contract with a central bank customer, announced in February, has been enhanced with a new capability in those sensors to detect ‘exotic counterfeits’. The new contract will result in an additional $1.2 million of development funding, to begin immediately.

This contract increases the total development funding to $8.7 million and could increase the sensor sales revenue by $7.5-41.5 million, depending on the total order size.

Prosegur Partners for Digital Instore Cash Solution

Santander has teamed up with Prosegur Cash to launch an in-store digital cash management service in Spain that puts the notes and coins that merchants accept straight into their bank accounts.

The Cash Today service is designed to guarantee the cash merchants collect is held in a secure device and contractually insured. It mirrors the benefits of card payments so clients can have the cash the device confirms immediately in their Santander bank account. Users can also track all transactions on their Cash Today device in real time online.

Prosegur Cash collects the cash and provides change and also has a dedicated call centre for the service to solve customer queries and incidents.

Prosegur Cash and Santander say they are targeting supermarkets, logistics, restaurants, service stations, pharmacies, tobacco shops and other businesses.

G+D Suspends Deliveries to Myanmar

At the same time as publishing its annual results (see page 4), Giesecke+Devrient announced its decision to suspend all deliveries to the state-owned security printer (Security Print Works) in Myanmar with immediate effect in response to the ongoing violent clashes between the military and the civilian population.

Prior to the delivery freeze, G+D's services to Myanmar had included the supply of raw materials, supplies and system components for the production of banknotes in the kyat, Myanmar’s national currency.

G+D says that, under better conditions, it hopes to be able to support the economy and, above all, the people of Myanmar with services and know-how again in the future.

UK Coin Questions

One of the parts of the cash cycle most affected by the pandemic has been coins. The normal flow has been seriously disrupted as people have switched to card payments or have rounded cash payments to use notes in preference to coins. In February 2020 there were almost £3 million worth of 2p coins held in wholesale cash centres, but demand has continued to outstrip supply almost every week, and in the past twelve months over £2.2 million in new 2p coins have been issued into circulation but never returned. Where are they all and why aren’t the pennies behaving the same?

The £2 coin is also staying out with the public far longer – again, for reasons that are not properly understood. Perhaps being hoarded for those long awaited holidays? The result, though, is that additional stocks are having to be minted to fill the gap.

Cash Services, part of UK Finance, is monitoring coin flows and would very much like more normal circulation patterns to return to get things back to where they were. As in the US, it would be helpful if the public would look down the back of their sofas, and empty their coin jars to get those coins moving again.

Goznak’s 2020 Sales and Profits Fall

Russian banknote printer, mint and papermaker Goznak saw sales fall by 9% to 45.9 billion rubles (RUB) in 2020, and profits by 24% to RUB 7.4 billion, according to reports in Russian media.

Amongst those figures, the sale of mint products fell by 0.5% to RUB 4.7 billion and paper by 7.4% to RUB 4.3 billion.

Goznak is the sole supplier of banknotes and coins to the Central Bank of Russia. It is also a major exporter, key contracts in 2020 including banknotes for Venezuela and Angola, and paper for Indonesia, Argentina and Algeria.