Mt Gox, one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges, has gone offline. It has reportedly suffered a cyber attack which led to Mt Gox stopping Bitcoin transfers to external addresses on 7 February 2014. A loophole was discovered by thieves enabling them to trick the transaction process into sending double the correct number of Bitcoins. It is…
According to a report by Giesecke & Devrient, the use of pre-paid payment cards is quickly increasing in India. There are around 17 million pre-paid payment cards currently in use, compared to 316 million credit and debit cards, but the gap is steadily decreasing. There are many people in India who do not have an…
It is known by many that Japan is a country which is very technically advanced. Cashless payments are commonly used in daily transactions and it would appear that Japan could be the ideal “Cashless Society”. Except it’s not. Total currency in circulation at the end of 2013 rose to Y90 trillion (US$860 billion) in Japan,…
At midnight on the 1st January 2014, Latvia became the 18th country to join the euro currency. The changeover has caused a mixture of emotions, with some opinion polls suggesting almost 60% of the population did not want to move to the euro currency. However, business owners as well as the government believe it will…
On Saturday 30 November 2013, East African Community leaders signed the Monetary Union Protocol, with the intention to have a single currency in 10 years’ time. The signing ceremony, held in Uganda, was witnessed by Members of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA), diplomats and high ranking government officials of member states. Kenya’s President Uhuru…
It has recently been announced that Pamplona Capital Management has entered exclusive talks to acquire Innovia Films. Innovia Films, a global manufacturer of speciality products for the packaging and security markets – Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) and Cellulose based films – currently supplies polymer to be used as a banknote substrate to around 20 Central…
It has today been announced that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has signed an agreement with UK based company Innovia Films to sell its 50% share in Securency International Pty Ltd. Innovia, who supplies Securency International with a key film from which they make Guardian® polymer banknote substrate, joined the RBA in a 50/50…
It has been advised that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to gradually replace all Rs10 banknotes with coins. The Rs10 coin was released into circulation in March 2009, alongside the RS10 banknote. It is reported that the current lifespan of an Rs10 banknote is only 9-10 months, which can be a challenge for…
The counterfeit statistics for the first half of 2012 have now been released by the European Central Bank (ECB). The total number of counterfeit euro banknotes which were removed from circulation during the 6 months from January to June 2012 totalled 251,000, a decrease of 15.2% compared to the same period in 2011. However, when comparing the number of…
Until 1857 all US $ bills were printed using ‘carbon black’ based ink on both the front and reverse of the note. The colour green used on US currency was invented in 1857 by a Canadian chemist named Thomas Sterry Hunt. Like other chemists of his day, he used natural pigments and laboratory chemicals to…