News in Brief

Lower Print Costs for Uganda

The value of cash in circulation (CIC) in Uganda grew by 5.6% in 2020/21 to 6.03 trillion Ugandan shillings. Of this, banknotes grew by 6% to 5.83 trillion shillings, and coins by 2.65% to 193 billion shillings.

Despite this, the Bank of Uganda saved 45.52 billion shillings in banknote printing costs over the last financial year, due to improved processing and new issuance guidelines. 75% of notes were reissued (versus a previous policy of 70% and a goal of 80%), and 25% of notes were new.

A ‘general decline in demand for cash was also a factor in reducing the central bank’s currency costs, the central bank said in its latest annual report.

According to the report, the cost of banknote printing declined 23.6% for the 2020–21 financial year, from 193 billion shillings to 147.5 billion.

Prosegur Strengthens Sustainability

Cash management specialist Prosegur has signed an agreement to become a partner of Forética, the leading organisation in sustainability and corporate social responsibility in Spain.

The move is aligned with the company’s Sustainability Master Plan, approved this year, which covers transparency and governance, environment, people and safe work, and for which it has set 63 concrete initiatives.

Prosegur has communicated its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2040, ie. ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement, and is the first security group in the world to join The Climate Pledge, an initiative developed by Amazon and Global Optimism in the fight against climate change.

The company has embarked on an ambitious CO2 emissions offsetting project which has started with the offsetting of the footprint generated by operations in Europe, and will be gradually extended to the other geographies in the coming years.

Portals Completes Fedrigoni Acquisition

The banknote and security paper manufacturer Portals and Fedrigoni, one of the leading European producers of specialty papers and high value-added products for packaging, graphics and self-adhesive labels, have announced the completion of the acquisition by the former of Fedrigoni’s security business.

This business is a key supplier of security threads (including magnetic threads for the euro), along with diffractive and other foil-based security features for banknotes and passports. The acquisition, described at the time of the preliminary announcement back in April as a ‘match made in heaven’, will give Portals an expanded portfolio and a more comprehensive product offering in the highly competitive security paper market.

‘We’re very pleased to welcome Fedrigoni’s security business customers, partners and employees into the Portals family and assure them we’ll continue to market, develop, support and increase investments in the business,’ commented Portals CEO Dr Ross Holliday. ‘This acquisition allows Portals to continue enhancing our banknote and security papers, increasing our global reach whilst accelerating our ability to produce the leading security products our customers require’.

New ECB Director for Banknotes

The Executive Board of the ECB has appointed Doris Schneeberger as Director Banknotes. She will take up the position in February next year, replacing Ton Roos who is retiring.

The Directorate Banknotes is responsible for coordinating and monitoring banknote developments within the Eurosystem and with third parties. Ms Schneeberger will shape the Directorate’s overall strategy including the Eurosystem’s cash strategy, which aims to ensure that cash remains widely available and accepted as a competitive means of payment and store of value, the ECB’s press release on her appointment said.

Ms Schneeberger has been the Head of the Currency Management Division since 2015, coordinating the production and issuance of euro banknotes across the euro area. Before joining the ECB in 2015, she held a number of roles in the field of cash and payments at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Noteworthy Launches 1st Bitcoin Banknote

Noteworthy, the new venture that is developing a physical cryptocurrency banknote that represent various denominations of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, has announced that its first Bitcoin-backed banknotes will be available in early 2022.

Designed by Manuela Pfrunder, who also designed the current Swiss banknote series, the note will be available in various ‘denominations’, ranging from £90 for 0.002 BTC through to £43,000 for 1 BTC.

The decentralised, security-audited Bitcoin banknotes look and feel like conventional banknotes, but are equipped with a secure cryptographic microprocessor that embeds digital security into each note.

Noteworthy was founded earlier this year by Larry Felix, former Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, an Peter Vessenes, who was the founding Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation (see CN March 2021).

Interested parties are invited to register for their Bitcoin Banknote at www.noteworth.ag.

Polymer Notes in the Philippines

Further to the announcement by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that it will be trialling polymer next year, local reports claim that an MOU has been signed with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in a government-to-government (G2G) deal that will see the notes produced by RBA subsidiary Note Printing Australia.

The trial note will be the 1,000 piso, the least used denomination in the country. ‘A few hundred million’ notes will be trialled, according to the BSP. Several have questioned why a more widely used lower denomination wasn’t selected instead.

The move has caused controversy in the Philippines, not least because a switch to polymer would be at the expense of the country’s abaca farmers, whose product makes up 20% of the composition of the current paper notes.