News in Brief

EU to Help Refugees Convert Hryvnias

The European Council has adopted a recommendation by the European Commission on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of member states hosting people escaping the war in Ukraine. The objective is to further support refugees who are having difficulty exchanging their banknotes into EU currencies.

The recommendation invites member states to set up national schemes to allow for the conversion of hryvnias under similar conditions across the EU. The schemes will allow displaced Ukrainians (over 5 million of whom have fled the country following Russia’s invasion) to exchange up to 10,000 hryvnias (approximately €310), per person. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has imposed a ban on foreign currency exchange to preserve its limited reserves to help support the war effort.

This exchange should be free of charges, and at the official exchange rate as published by the NBU. The duration of these schemes will be a minimum of three months.

CPS Announces its Sustainability Plans

Cash Processing Solutions (CPS) has published its environmental policy and activity plan, at the heart of which is the ISO14001 environmental standard for its engineering and design facilities. It will also source responsibly, requiring its main suppliers to have proper environmental processes, policies and procedures in place.

The company’s list of plans and activities including looking to refurbish and recycle used spare parts and provide recycling facilities at its own locations. It is also actively discouraging the use of single-use unrecyclable plastics, and is offering its customers a disposal service for obsolete equipment in accordance with e-Waste Management requirements (eg. WEEE).

The company is pursuing a ‘Cloud First’ server IT policy which, it says, will significantly reduce its server power consumption. In addition to seeking out environmentally sustainable packaging and shipping methods, it is also offsetting the carbon footprint of flights taken by staff.

Meta Materials Continues on Acquisitions Trail

Meta Materials Inc, a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites, has acquired Plasma App Ltd (PAL) for $20 million.

UK-based PAL is the developer of PLASMAfusion™, a proprietary manufacturing platform technology which enables large scale high speed coating of any solid material on any type of substrate. The move follows Meta’s acquisition of Nanotech Security Corp in October 2021.

Meta expects to apply PLASMAfusion to the metallisation step in its roll-to-roll production process for NANOWEB® films, as well as KolourOptik® security films. This is expected to significantly accelerate line speed and increase annual capacity, and substantially reduce the cost per square metre of output.

According to the company, PLASMAfusion uniquely combines the benefits of sputtering and evaporation, while using zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds). PAL’s technology works in a more sustainable, customisable, and efficient way, by producing new materials in vacuum at low substrate temperatures with higher adhesion.

Meta intends to continue to industrialise and scale up PLASMAfusion, including applications for its high volume factory in Thurso, Quebec. Additionally, PLASMAfusion will be available for licensing and co-development for strategic partners.

BNM Qualifies Four Cash Processing Companies

Bank Negara Malaysia has announced that four companies have now been registered as currency processors, in line with the Currency Act of 2020, which came into force in October of that year and provides a legal framework for the management of currency and the regulation of currency processing businesses and activities.

The scope of the Act covers legal tender, withdrawal and disposal, replacement of defaced currency, fitness standards, counterfeits, restrictions on using images of currency, prohibitions on melting down coins, limitations on cash transactions, as well as procedures for registering and operating as authorised cash processors.

The four companies that have now been registered are Armour Security Systems, Securiforce Currency Management, Safeguards G4S and SRT-EON Security Services.

Nigeria Bans Composed Notes

The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned the country’s deposit money banks (DMBs) to stop depositing ‘composed banknotes’.

Composed banknotes are mutilated currency notes comprising several parts of different banknotes of the same denomination.

As of 1 April, composed banknotes discovered in DMB deposits will incur a penalty of 400% of the value of the note.

According to the Bank, the number of such notes is increasing, and not only do they falsify the true value of currency in the economy, but could also be an avenue for fraud.

TRM and NFT

The Royal Mint doesn’t just have the processing of e-waste in its sights as a new activity (see page 1). It is also moving into the area of digital assets, following its commissioning by the UK Chancellor to create an NFT (non fungible token) as part of a push to make the country a ‘global hub for cryptoasset technology’.

An NFT is a unit of data stored on a blockchain digital ledger that cannot be copied, substituted or subdivided, and is used to certify authenticity and ownership. They are normally linked to works of art. According to TRM, it will be launching a range of NFTs that will ‘help customers own digital collectibles in a secure and trusted way, while engaging new audiences’.

KOMSCO Steps up in Uzbekistan

The state-run Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp (KOMSCO) has signed a technology agreement with Davlat Belgisi, Uzbekistan’s state-owned banknote printer and papermaker, which will expand the supply of intaglio ink to the Central Asian country.

Uzbekistan, which is in the course of changing the design of its banknotes, had earlier chosen KOMSCO as its supplier of intaglio ink. The company is scheduled to supply 55 tons of nine types of ink worth 2.6 billion won ($2 million) to Uzbekistan this year. As Davlat Belgisi also supplies banknotes for other countries, this amount is expected to increase.

In addition to the expansion of ink supply, the agreement also covers shared technology and know-how for coins and e-passports.

KOMSCO is already active in Uzbekistan through the cotton pulp-maker joint venture Global Komsco Daewoo, which was set up in 2010 following the purchase of the Kogozi pulp company from the National Bank of Uzbekistan. The country produces around one million tonnes of cotton a year (approximately 4% of global production), and the JV – which produces around 14,000 tons of related fibres annually – has guaranteed KOMSCO stable and sufficient supplies of the cotton waste needed for banknote and secure document production.