EAST presents at Vigie Billet meeting

EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn gave a presentation at the General Assembly of Vigie Billet at the offices of the French Banking Federation (FBF) in Paris on Thursday 30 November 2017.  Presentations were also given by the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (Central Office Against Organised Crime – OCLO), the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie (Central Office Against Itinerant Criminals – OCLDI), the Bank of France, the National Institute of Scientific Police (INPS), the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) and the French Association of ATM Providers (AFPAB).

The EAST presentation gave an overview of the latest European crime statistics as published in the most recent European Payment Terminal Crime Report covering the first six months of 2017.

Vigie Billet is a non-profit association created to educate the public and especially retailers of the risks associated with accepting and circulating stained banknotes.  Typically the banknotes are stained by an intelligent banknote neutralisation system (IBNS) which marks all the cash as stolen using a degradation agent when an attempted attack on the system is detected. Ink is a popular agent, which functions by staining cash with a permanent dye. Such marked money is highly conspicuous and cannot be readily used.

Similar initiatives to Vigie Billet outside France are covered by Banknote Watch.

 

 

Viewpoint: Do you know what to do with a stained banknote?

In an EAST website research poll that ran from January to April 2016 67% of respondents stated that they do know what to do with a stained banknote, 6% don’t and 27% are not sure.

On this website EAST provides guidance as to what action you should take if a stained banknote is offered to you or comes into your possession. The action required varies from country to country, as does the legal status of a stained banknote.  The poll results can be seen in the chart below.

EAST Poll Jan-Apr 16
To deter crime, money dispensed by ATMs is increasingly protected by Intelligent Banknote Neutralisation Systems (IBNS).  These systems activate in the event of a robbery or theft, and stain the banknotes (typically red, a purple variant or green).  Stained banknotes are removed from circulation by National Central Banks, but retailers and members of the general public should be aware that if they receive a stained banknote, it is almost certainly a stolen banknote, and should not be accepted.

Image shows banknotes stained with dye

The current website research poll, which closes at the end of August, is on payment security when using mobile phones to pay for goods and services and asks the question – ‘Are you satisfied your payment details are safe when buying goods or services using your mobile phone?’  To take it, and to see all past results, visit the ATM Research Page on this website, or click on the button below.