At a media news conference held on the 12 December in Berne, Switzerland, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) advised that the first of its new denomination series will not be issued until 2015 at the earliest.

The release of the new banknotes has suffered a series of delays but the SNB states that due to the “high security standard” of the previous notes issued in the mid-1990’s, the SNB is “not under any pressure to roll out a new banknote series quickly”.

The reason for the new banknote series is to keep up to date with new security features available in the industry. The notes have been designed with the intention of the security features being effective for the following 15 years from their release.

“It is worth taking the time to ensure that the new security features, which are complex, technologically innovative and have never before been applied to banknote design, can also stand up to the rigours of industrial production processes.”

The SNB has advised that the issue date will be announced once the “production of the first banknote denomination has been completed”.

Source: Swiss National Bank