Switzerland 1000 high value banknote.

Thousand franc banknote “part of Swiss culture”

The thousand franc banknote (CHF1,000) from Switzerland is the most valuable in the world, worth around US $1,000. But its legitimate use, and other high value banknotes, has been questioned for some time due its link with financial crime and tax evasion. There have been several reports and statements made recently by those who believe such high…

Suitcase filled with euro banknotes

Call to ban high value banknotes

Former Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank, Peter Sands, has called on Central Banks to stop issuing high value banknotes in order to tackle crime. A report by Mr Sands produced for the Harvard Kennedy School, has highlighted the use of such banknotes by “terrorists, drug lords and tax evaders”, “The scale of such illicit…

Mobile payments

Eavesdropping Contactless Payments

In a paper published in September by the Department of Computing, University of Surrey, UK, researchers demonstrated how contactless payments could be interferred with, effectively “eavesdropping” on the payment systems which use Near Field Communication (NFC) / Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to transfer payment data. With the required technology being increasingly made available, be…