Company type | Government |
---|---|
Industry | Security printing |
Founded | 1949 |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Jameel Ahmed (Chairman) Saleem ullah (Managing Director) |
Products | Currency notes, Prize Bonds (1949–Present) |
Parent | State Bank of Pakistan |
Website | www |
Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (Pvt.) Limited (PSPC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the State Bank of Pakistan and prints security products such as Pakistani banknotes and prize bonds for the federal government. [1] Pakistan Security Printing Corporation was established as a joint venture company by Government of Pakistan on March 10, 1949, with M/s Thomas De La Rue International of United Kingdom.
Over the years, PSPC underwent several expansion programs and enhancement of its own portfolio. This included establishment of a security paper manufacturing company known as, Security Papers Limited (SPL) in 1965, of which PSPC is currently the majority shareholder. The creation of SPL removed PSPC’s dependence on imported security paper. Similarly, PSPC also underwent a joint venture with SICPA, a renowned manufacturer of security inks for currencies and sensitive documents, to establish a private limited company known as SICPA Pakistan which solely focuses on manufacturing inks for security products in Pakistan.
Initially, PSPC was involved in the printing of security products such as banknotes, prize bonds, stamp papers, degree documents, machine readable passports, cheque books and stamps etc., however, in July 2017, State Bank of Pakistan acquired the company along with operations of Banknote and Prize Bond printing from the Ministry of Finance for Rs.100 Billion. A separate company known as 'National Security Printing Company (NSPC)', was established under the umbrella of Ministry of Finance to print other security products. [2]
The economy of Pakistan is categorized as a developing economy. It ranks as the 24th-largest based on GDP using purchasing power parity (PPP) and the 46th largest in terms of nominal GDP. With a population of 241.5 million people as of 2023, Pakistan's position at per capita income ranks 161st by GDP (nominal) and 138th by GDP (PPP) according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A banknote – also called a bill, paper money, or simply a note – is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commercial banks, which were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the market served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks or monetary authorities.
The Pakistani rupee is the official currency in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan. It was officially adopted by the Government of Pakistan in 1949. Earlier the coins and notes were issued and controlled by the Reserve Bank of India until 1949, when it was handed over to the Government and State Bank of Pakistan, by the Government and Reserve Bank of India.
Security printing is the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes, cheques, passports, tamper-evident labels, security tapes, product authentication, stock certificates, postage stamps, and identity cards. The main goal of security printing is to prevent forgery, tampering, or counterfeiting. More recently many of the techniques used to protect these high-value documents have become more available to commercial printers, whether they are using the more traditional offset and flexographic presses or the newer digital platforms. Businesses are protecting their lesser-value documents such as transcripts, coupons and prescription pads by incorporating some of the features listed below to ensure that they cannot be forged or that alteration of the data cannot occur undetected.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is the central bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was nationalised and the scope of its functions was considerably enlarged. The State Bank of Pakistan Act 1956, with subsequent amendments, forms the basis of its operations today. The headquarters are located in the financial capital of the country in Karachi. The bank has a fully owned subsidiary with the name SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC), the operational arm of the Central Bank with Branch Office in 16 cities across Pakistan, including the capital Islamabad and the four provincial capitals Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta. The State Bank of Pakistan has other fully owned subsidiaries as well: National Institute of Banking and Finance, the training arm of the bank providing training to Commercial Banks, the Deposit Protection Corporation, and ownership of the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation.
De La Rue plc is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that produces secure digital and physical protections for goods, trade, and identities in 140 countries. It sells to governments, central banks, and businesses. Its authentication division provides government revenue technology, brand protection, and ID security, such as polycarbonate data pages for passports. Its currency division designs and produces banknotes, secure polymer substrate and banknote security features. This includes security holograms, security threads and security printed products for central banks and currency issuing authorities. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is the world's largest commercial printer of banknotes.
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Joint Stock Company "Goznak" is a Russian joint-stock company responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing security products including banknotes, coins, stamps, identity cards, secure documents, state orders and medals, as well as providing secure services. It incorporates seven factories and one research and development institute involved in different stages of the development, research, and manufacturing cycle.
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American Banknote Corporation, trading as ABCorp, is an American corporation providing contract manufacturing and related services to the authentication, payment and secure access business sectors. Its history dates back to 1795 as a secure engraver and printer, and assisting the newly formed First Bank of the United States to design and produce more counterfeit resistant currency. The company has facilities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The ANY Security Printing Company, formerly the State Printing Company, is one of the largest security printing companies in Hungary and the CEE region. In the past, the company produced traditional printing products. Today its activities are focused on documenting security products, plastic card production and personalization, electronic document management, and bulk transactional printing. The company's shares have been listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange since December 2005.
Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) is a term used by officials and media to refer to counterfeit currency notes circulated in the Indian economy. In 2012, while responding to a question in parliament, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, admitted that there is no confirmed estimate of fake currency in India. However, several central and state agencies are working together, and the Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted the Fake Indian Currency Notes Co-ordination Center (FCORD) to curb this menace.
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The Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL) is an organization under the Coin and Currency Division of Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. It is responsible for conducting printing and minting activities for the Government of India. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It was incorporated on 13 January 2006 with its registered office at New Delhi. It is engaged in the manufacture / production of currency and banknotes, security paper, non-judicial stamp papers, postage stamps and stationery, travel document viz., passport and visa, security certificates, cheques, bonds, warrants, special certificates with security features, security inks, circulation and commemorative coins, medallions, refining of gold, silver and assay of precious metals, etc.
Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran (BRBNM) is a specialised division of Reserve Bank of India which is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance of the Government of India. It produces Indian bank notes. It was established in 1995 to address the demand of bank notes and coins. It operates in Indian and global markets, catering to security document needs of Central banks and monetary authorities of the world by designing, printing and supplying banknotes. BRBNM supplies a major portion of bank note requirement in the country with the remaining requirements met through Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), a statutory body wholly owned by Government of India. BRBNMPL has two presses in Mysuru and Salboni. The present capacity for both the presses is 16 billion note pieces per year on a two-shift basis.
The Lost Continental is a light-purple 24¢ United States postage stamp depicting General Winfield Scott, printed around 1873 on vertically ribbed paper by the Continental Banknote Company. It is the only known copy of this 24¢ Scott stamp—among the many surviving examples—that can be positively identified as a printing by the Continental firm, and not by the National Banknote Company, which had originally produced this 24¢ issue three years earlier. For more than a century, experts could not determine with certainty whether Continental had ever, in fact, printed its own version of this stamp—or, if it had done so, whether any of the copies it printed survived. Conclusive evidence did not begin to emerge until a collector named Eraldo Magazzu discovered the Lost Continental while examining a lot of old stamps he had purchased in 1967. Much debate and analysis followed before the stamp, on the evidence of its paper-type, was finally certified as authentic by the Philatelic Foundation in 1992. How many other copies of this Scott issue printed on normal paper by Continental still exist is a question that philatelists believe will never be answered. Despite this uncertainty about the stamp's actual degree of rarity, the Lost Continental sold for $325,000 at a Siegel Gallery auction in December, 2004 A photograph of the stamp appeared on the front cover of the catalogue for that auction; on page 60 of the catalogue, a photograph of the Lost Continental's back shows the pencil mark "153", a Scott catalogue number that erroneously identifies the stamp as an example printed by the National Banknote Company.
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