Central Banks and Cash Round-Up

Rather than have a regional focus in this month’s coverage of cash information in central bank annual reports, we are doing a general catch-up this month, with news from the recently-issued reports of the central banks of Fiji, Romania and Russia.

Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF)

Cash in Circulation: as of July 2023, total currency in circulation stood at just over $1 billion, compared with $973.4 million the previous year (values are expressed in Fijian dollars).

The value of notes in circulation increased by 4.2% to $941.5 million, with the $5, $10 and $100 denominations being the highest circulated notes. The value of coins increased by 5.8% to $74.3 million.

The $1 and $2 coins registered a growth of 5% to $18.9 million and 8.9% to $22.1 million respectively.

Note Processing: all redeemed notes are processed and sorted for fitness. 26.9 million redeemed notes were processed, of which 6 million were deemed fit for reissue, and the balance destroyed.

Counterfeiting: the volume of counterfeit notes discovered was negligible, at less than 0.1% of the value of the total currency in circulation.

Numismatics: RBF realised $2 million in numismatic income. During the year, it signed several agreements with partner mints for various new numismatic currency programmes, along with the sale of existing silver and coloured coins, singles, pairs, and uncut note sheets, including other collectable items.

National Bank of Romania (NBR)

Cash in Circulation: in 2022, the value of currency outside banks expanded by 4.8% (to 105.9 billion lei), the pace of increase being 3.5% points slower than that recorded in 2021. In volume terms, the number of banknotes increased by 4.1% to 1.65 billion, and the number of coins by 5.1% to 5.4 billion.

The rise in banknote was across several denominations – 1 leu 1 (+8.1%), 10 lei (+10.1%), 100 lei (+2.2%), 200 lei (+11.8%) and 500 lei (+5.4%). Conversely, decreases were recorded for the 5 lei (-1.8%) and 50 lei (-8.4%) notes. As for the 20 lei denomination, which was put into circulation in December 2021, the number of banknotes outside banks was 7.5 million at the end of 2022 versus 0.8 million at the end of the prior year.

The 1 leu banknote was the most frequently used; its share in the total number of banknotes outside banks standing at 26.5%, followed by the 100 lei (26.3%) and the 50 lei (13.8%). The 500 lei held the lowest share, 0.9%. The 20 lei’s share came in at 0.5% in the first year following its introduction.

The banknotes most frequently used for loading ATMs, namely the 100, 200 and 50 lei, continued to take the highest shares of the total value of banknotes at 41.4%, 37.8% and 10.8% respectively.

The number of coins in circulation in 2022 was 5.4 billion (a 5.1% increase year on year), their value standing 7.3% higher than at the end of 2021. As a result of the high demand, the number of all denominations increased in comparison to 2021, with percentages varying between 2.1% (for the 1 ban coin) and 8.9% (for the 50 bani). The 5 and 10 bani coins accounted for the most significant shares of the total, ie. 42.5% and 26.2% respectively.

In terms of value, the 10 and 50 bani denominations accounted for 88.3% of the total, the largest share being held by the 50 bani (54.8%).

At the end of 2022, the number of notes and coins per capita was 87 and 286, respectively, four notes and 16 coins more than at the end of 2021.

Unfit Notes and Coins: throughout 2022, 401.6 million banknotes were processed by NBR (97.4 million banknotes more than the previous year), out of which 109.1 million were sorted as unfit for currency circulation. This corresponded to an average unfit banknote rate of approximately 27%, 5% points higher than that recorded in 2021.

Some 5 million coins were processed in 2022 (0.5 million more than the year before), with 222,000 coins being sorted as unfit for currency circulation.

Counterfeiting: in 2022, counterfeit Romanian banknotes totalled 4,463, up 55.45% from the previous year. The ratio was 2.46 ppm, versus 1.66 ppm in 2021.

Bank of Russia (BOR)

Cash in Circulation: in 2022, ₽2,300.6 billion was issued for circulation (a 16.3% increase on 2021), of which ₽2,296.5 billion was in banknotes and ₽4.1 billion in coins. As of 1 January 2023, the currency units in circulation, including coins made of precious metals, totalled ₽16,392.3 billion, including banknotes to the amount of ₽16,269.1 billion (7.4 billion units) and coins to the amount of ₽122.7 billion (71.3 billion units). Coins made of precious metals amounted to ₽0.5 billion.

In value terms, banknotes and coins accounted for 99.2% and 0.8% respectively. In volume terms, the former made up 9.4% and the latter 90.6%. In 2022, the number of banknotes in circulation increased by 0.6 billion units and the number of coins (excluding coins made of precious metals) by 1 billion.

Coin Circulation: to provide higher velocity of coin circulation, the Coin Platform has been introduced – an information service supporting the direct communication between banks and merchants regarding the delivery of coins to each other. In 2022, the number of regions where the Coin Platform was operating increased from 14 to 21, and the number of participants from 198 to 277. The Platform’s turnover increased by 55.1% over the year.

Upgraded Banknotes: in 2022, BOR completed the upgrade of the ₽100 banknotes with a new design and improved security features. ATMs, money counters, sorters, and other cash equipment were adapted to process the upgraded banknote. BOR received its first ‘Made in Russia’ high-capacity counting and sorting machine.

Counterfeiting: levels remained low, with a ratio of 4 ppm (versus 6 ppm the previous year). 22,874 counterfeit banknotes, including 14,184 ₽5,000 banknotes, 4,336 ₽2,000 banknotes, and 3,637 ₽1,000 banknotes, were detected, withdrawn from circulation, and handed over to the police.

Digital Ruble: in a further development of the national payment system, in 2022 BOR completed the prototype testing of the digital ruble platform, with plans to pilot it in 2023 and roll it out for international transactions by early 2025.