News in Brief

Two ATMIA Awards for CashEssentials

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 ATMmys are presented by the ATMIA International Marketing Forum (IMF) and designed to recognise the hard work and creativity required to promote cash and ATM products and services to businesses and consumers worldwide.

The first award was in the Digital Category for the campaign ‘Live Free. Pay Cash.’

In October 2020, the Live Free. Pay Cash digital campaign (https://lnkd.in/eK7v3d5u) promoted individual freedom and the benefits of cash, at a time when cash was subject to significant negative publicity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And second was the Cash Promotion Category award for the YouTube video entitled ‘The Cash Cycle in Disasters.’ (https://lnkd.in/eqc5vbTW).

The Cash and Crises Portal is designed to offer aid agencies a closer look into the payments landscape, its stakeholders, and, more specifically, the overall cash cycle.

Bundesbank Celebrates 20 year of Euro Cash

The Bundesbank held an event on 9 November in Berlin celebrating the 20th anniversary of the euro. Prof Dr Johannes Beermann, Member of the Executive Board, noted the tremendous achievement of 11 founding euro countries jointly leaving behind overnight their previous national narratives despite their different cultures, languages and historical backgrounds.

He made the point that the physical existence of the euro as banknote and coin has contributed to the great acceptance of this European project; since the cash can be touched, it leaves a deeper impression on the user, thus creating trust among people.

The Bundesbank is currently conducting a study on the cash of the future, which will be published next year. The aim of the study is to position cash in 15 years’ time, and beyond, as an attractive, reliable, competitive and generally accepted means of payment and store of value and to ensure its infrastructure.

Other speakers included Brett Scott, Kenza Ait Si Abbou from IBM speaking about digitalisation, Prof Dr Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi on the gender difference in finance, and a panel discussion with representatives from politics and the economy discussing ‘Euro Cash – where would it be on the 30th anniversary?’ 

India Develops Own Security Pigment

The Reserve Bank of India has authorised the use of a component in banknote ink developed in the country, that local reports say will cut the cost of printing by up to 70%.

The fluorescent pigment has been under development since 2016, and its use will replace pigments that are currently imported. It was developed by the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology in Kerala, which specialises in photon chemistry.

Its development will be a further boost to the Make in India campaign, which aims to make the country self-sufficient in banknote production. Another important development in this campaign was the opening of a new high security ink manufacturing unit, VARNIKA, in Mysore earlier this year to produce colour shifting intaglio ink, coatings for different types of varnish and special additives (see CN March 2022).