Vietnam Marks 18 Years of Polymer Banknotes

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is celebrating not just its 70th anniversary, and the 30th anniversary of the National Banknote Printing Plant, but is also marking its 18th year of using polymer banknotes from CCL Secure.

The SBV was among the first countries to adopt polymer for all its banknotes. It began its transfer to polymer in 2003 with the issue of new 50,000 and 500,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) notes. Four other denominations – the VND 10,000, 20,000, 100,000 and 200,000 notes – followed suit.

‘Looking back on the journey of our polymer banknotes, we can clearly see the superiority, benefits, and economic efficiency from SBV’s good decisions to promote polymer banknotes,’ said the Bank.

The primary reason for moving to polymer was to reduce the level of counterfeit notes in circulation, which has been successfully achieved.

‘The number of counterfeit notes decreased significantly after the issuance of polymer banknotes’, said the SBV. “Between 2004 and 2011, the number of counterfeit notes in circulation fell by 76% compared to the period 1997-2004, when cotton notes were in circulation. By the end of 2020, counterfeit notes had decreased by 93.7% compared to 2011. 2020 is also the fourth consecutive year that a number of counterfeit notes in the Banking and State Treasury system decreased.’ The SBV also points to significant cost savings. According to its own analysis, the cotton/paper notes that were previously in circulation needed to be replaced every three years, while quality of polymer notes is retained after this period. So, although the cost of printing polymer banknotes is 1.5-2 times higher than that of the paper alternative, polymer lasts up to four times longer, leading to real cost savings for the State budget.