SBP to enhance security features of currency notes

KARACHI: The central bank is planning to issue Rs500 and currency notes of above denominations with enhanced security features in the third quarter of the next year.  

Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said the issuance is a subject to the approval of the federal government.

Wathra ruled out the possibility of issuing more than Rs5,000 currency notes in future.    “In order to ensure that no counterfeit currency passes through the banking system, a comprehensive cash management strategy has been issued to automate banks’ cash processing functions by January 2017,” he said, while launching videos and smartphone application on security features of currency notes.

“The SBP is in the process of installing state-of-the-art high-speed banknote processing machines at SBP BSC Karachi and other important regions across the country.”  

The governor, however, said these initiatives would only be partly successful without support of law enforcement agencies. 

“I will strongly urge the LEAs to strengthen their capacity in this area, create specialised cells, and build strong intelligence and surveillance system to catch the counterfeiters and their networks, if any,” he said.

The SBP has developed videos to highlight the security features of currency notes to enhance public awareness about genuine and fake notes.

Wathra said the SBP has adopted a three pronged strategy to combat counterfeiting.

“The key deterrent against currency counterfeiting is the public awareness about the security features of currency notes,” he said.   “The smartphone application will enable millions of smartphone users in the country to have complete information about these security features on their mobiles.”