The current £20 note has the highest circulation of all notes with over 50% of the UK total notes in circulation. There are over 1billion notes and it therefore represents the note most subject to counterfeiting.

A new £20 note has been designed with the traditional head of the Queen on the face of the note and the head of Adam Smith, a Scottish economist, on the reverse of the note. The new note has an increased stripe watermark, hologram, and other enhanced security features. The note is a deeper purple colour than existing notes, and ALL equipment/mechanisms used for note counting, note deposit, and note dispensing must be compatible with both the old and new notes for the foreseeable future.

European Commission Environmental Policies

The European Commission are continuously reviewing environmental policies and have set some very stringent targets. It will become an increasing responsibility of manufacturers to show that they are meeting environmental policies in terms of design, manufacture and disposal. The EC are drafting regulations and legislation putting increased responsibilities on manufacturers for equipment sold in the EU irrespective of country of manufacture. For example US companies who sell product in Europe will also be subject to the same environmental policies when they are implemented.

The European Commission has already completed a study confirming the “environmental” impact of an ATM in terms of power consumption taking the following into account

- 5 different models of ATM
- Total number of functional (bank) ATM’s
- Average 5,000 withdrawals per ATM per Month
- Standby power consumption
- Transaction period power consumption

To the above information has been collated based on the cost of distribution and collection of cash, note sorting, collating and counting.

To counter the “negative” image this portrays, ATMIA are holding meetings with the EC to confirm the true figure of alternatives to the ATM (return to using a traditional teller, or the move towards cashless with the significant increase in electronics and risk).

The Myth of the Cashless Society

There is increasing publicity surrounding the introduction of a “cashless” society, with VISA Europe indicating that UK may be cashless by 2012!  Yet the cashless society has proved as elusive as the paperless office.

ATMIA has attended and presented at a number of conferences introducing factual data to provide a cautionary brake to the cashless protagonists. We remain confident that cash is king, and that the cost effectiveness, convenience, and both the economic and consumer impact will ensure that cashless is some significant way off. Complacency however must be avoided and as an industry we must continue to address the issues of improving business efficiency and reducing cost, which are the cornerstone reasons for EC addressing the introduction of cashless.

ATMIA Europe relationships 

In addition to our continued relationship with organisations such as ESTA, EFMA, ATMSWG, etc., we are now working with “KIOSK Europe” due to the evolvement of kiosks in the branch environment, and the integration of self service functionality between kiosks and ATM’s.

ATMIA Europe look forward to an expanding supporting role between the two organisations.

CHIP & PIN

The introduction of chip & PIN has made it more difficult for fraudsters to commit card fraud in UK, with losses at UK retailers falling by 47% from 2005 to 2006 (a continuing trend from 2004). However criminals are still targeting UK cards with the aim of copying the magnetic stripe data. They use this data to create counterfeit magnetic stripe cards that can potentially be used in countries that have not upgraded to chip and PIN. This has caused the increase 43% in fraud losses abroad over the last 12 months.

“Fighting fraud is never going to succeed with a single layered approach. It requires different sectors – including public and private – to work together on developing and implementing strategies, sharing best practice, and most importantly, sharing data. We need Government intervention to remove the current barriers to this and we welcome improvements proposed in the Fraud Review and Serious Crime Bill”

Sandra Quinn
Director of Communications at APACS

European Commission Statement

Recently in Europe the cost efficiency of cash, in particular in comparison to other means of payment, has been questioned and discussed. These discussions may have contributed to a somewhat distorted perception of the merits of cash, which is by far the most widely used payment instrument in the euro area. The Eurosystem recently undertook an evaluation of existing studies on the cost of cash and would like to share its considerations with the stakeholders in the cash cycle. The summary of the EC evaluation has shown:

“Only moderate potential savings can be achieved from a substitution of cash by electronic means of payments. Most probably, much greater cost savings could result from optimising the cash handling process, in particular the lodgement processes. The Eurosystem is committed to contributing in this context together with all relevant stakeholders in the cash cycle.”