SBP’s efforts to curb fake currency appreciated

ATMs to be fitted with a device that will detect counterfeit currency.

KARACHI: In a dog and pony show held for the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday, Saleem Mandviwalla told journalists he appreciated the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for controlling the amount of counterfeit currency in the economy.

He made the comment in a 30-second press briefing, which started an hour late at the SBP head office.

“We had received complaints that ATMs were dispensing fake currency notes. I admire efforts of the SBP to check this practice,” he said.

He also announced that all ATMs would be fitted with a device by 2018 that would spontaneously detect fake currency notes - a measure that the SBP governor had already announced on December 22.

The SBP is going to automate banks’ cash-processing functions by January 2017 in order to curb the use of counterfeit currency.

It will install state-of-the-art, high-speed banknote-processing machines at the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC) Karachi and other important regions across the country to curb fake currency.

According to the SBP, the share of fake notes in the total currency in circulation is comparatively smaller than global and regional averages. Their average is about two to three in one million notes in circulation.

In contrast, the average of fake currency notes in the South Asian region is six to seven per million notes.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2016.

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