Remittance firms crack down on counterfeit notes

Counterfeit notes are most prevalent at gas stations, grocery stores and cash-intensive businesses such as remittance and exchange houses.

The Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (Ferg), comprising businesses engaged in money exchange and remittances, recently organised a training session to raise awareness of counterfeited bank notes.

The session was designed to help exchange and remittance professionals rapidly identify suspicious foreign currency notes. The event focused on the security features built into various currencies.

"Counterfeiting has serious repercussions for global economies. It reduces the value of real money and can result in decreased acceptability of paper money as consumers and businesses lose trust in currency. This can, in turn, increase the costs of doing business. If not vetted carefully, counterfeit notes can also result in losses when trades are not reimbursed," says FERG chairman Osama Al Rahma.

Experts at the event noted that counterfeit notes are most prevalent at gas stations, grocery stores and cash-intensive businesses such as remittance and exchange houses. Employees benefitted from a refresher course in the security features built into bank notes, including substrate, design and ink and shiny features.

"We believe the best way of guarding against counterfeit bank notes is the KYC, or 'Know Your Currency', approach. We want our staff to be very adept at recalling features of the world's major currencies so they can tell if something doesn't match up. Suspicious notes can then be tested further. The escalation process has to be reported by the authorised person from the exchange house to the law enforcement and concerned authorities in the UAE, or else it would be considered as an offence just like in other countries," Al Rahma adds.

Attendees were taken through escalating steps for testing suspicious notes. The first step is feeling the banknote - with counterfeit samples regularly given away by differing texture. Genuine bank notes are often Intaglio printed - a method that produces subtle reliefs on the print, giving it a raised feel. The next move is to hold a note up to the light to check see-through features, watermarks and security threads. If needed, staff members can use a UV lamp to reveal ultraviolet security measures, or check for optically variable ink and latent images.

- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com