The banknote, a hi-tech product

The Banque de France pursues a policy of constant technological innovation. The Research and Development (R&D) Unit of the Directorate General Banknote Manufacturing covers all areas of cash-related research and applications, ranging from the substrate to the printed banknote, from the security features of the latest generation including the associated sensors to the innovative solutions for increasing the resilience of banknotes. In cooperation with the leading international research centres and the ECB (https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/research/html/index.en.html), the R&D Unit makes use of the results of the latest research in the areas of optics, chemistry, physics and electromagnetics.

This innovation policy aims to meet two growing requirements in the cash industry:

• satisfying an increasing demand for banknote security in order to stay ahead of counterfeiters;
• improving the durability of banknotes, in order to deal with damage incurred in circulation, in particular by low-value banknotes.

Furthermore, Europafi, subsidiary of the Banque de France, is the test centre of the Eurosystem for all questions related to banknote paper.

In addition to its National Counterfeit Analysis Centre, the Banque de France has the largest counterfeit research centre in Europe which conducts studies for the ECB and also responds to requests from many other central banks worldwide.