Managing Note Quality and Authenticity in the Field

With the growing adoption of note re-circulation processes and technology by commercial banks, it is becoming ever more difficult for central banks to assess the quality of notes in circulation and also check that all notes being distributed are genuine. So says Intelligent Currency Solutions (ICS) which, in order to address these issues, has teamed up with Innovia Films to launch a solution that can be deployed universally into branch-based note processing technologies. It can also be installed on low- end cheque processing equipment or as an independent system to provide feedback from the commercial bank branches - taking advantage of hard- ware already in use at these locations.
The solution consists of two main modules.

First is a software package for image analysis. This accesses the raw data captured by the host system (for example a note counter, scanner or cheque processor) and then uses advanced image processing techniques to assess the level of note degradation, to give a wear level for each note against a perfect note quality. The images are then further processed and individual areas of interest on the note can be weighted to give a dedicated analysis (maybe the watermark area or a specific design feature).

The output from this analysis can then be stored and further analysed to evaluate wear characteristics, the impact of note handling technologies, or specific social/cultural aspects in note usage to see how these are impacting note quality in circulation and also manage the trends in note quality nationally. Second is a detector, Verus®, that has been specifically designed to check the authenticity of Innovia Security Guardian® substrate to ensure that all notes being seen are genuine. The detector can be retrofitted onto existing equipment in the branch or integrated into new equipment during the roll out phase. The design of the detector is such that it can fit into most types of note and document processing equipment, even down to low-end counter-based solutions.

According to ICS and Innovia, the combination of these two elements allows technology to be deployed to the commercial bank branches, which will assess the authenticity and quality of notes and provide constant feedback to the central bank. Where notes are being re- circulated at branch level, the solution ensures that there is still adequate visibility of the note quality trends and that any issues can be identified before they become critical.

While the initial focus of this solution has been for polymer-based notes, the image processing capabilities can also be applied to other substrates. This means that in countries with a mixed stock of paper-based and poly- mer-based notes, the solution can provide an analysis of relative wear and degradation rates between the various note types so that the central bank can assess real note performance and quality issues independently.