Romanian banks ready to detect counterfeit euro

Romania ranks first among the non-euro countries having ordered processors for euro bills and coins and equipment to detect counterfeit money. Moreover, the Romanian banks are seriously considering the fraud possibility and have taken security measures.

“De La Rue has delivered 40 euro processors and fraud detecting equipment so far. We have received 450-500 firm orders for this kind of equipment to be delivered by the year’s end. The Romanian banks have quickly adjusted to the general trend and take the fraud possibility very seriously,” said Dan ?one, general manager of Eutron Invest Romania, exclusive distributor for De La Rue in Romania.

UK’s De La Rue is the only private group whose core business includes bill printing and cash processor manufacturing.

De La Rue, which has printed bills in more than 150 countries and is the official partner of the European Central Bank, benefited from its familiarity with the euro security elements, as it has actually printed them, and developed an entire family of euro bills processors, which implicitly trace the counterfeit money.

“The euro will be the second hard currency as for circulation throughout the world, after the US dollar and is likely to be exposed to forgery and counterfeiting. We should not forget that, as of January 1, 2002, the euro will begin to circulate in Romania from the banks, the foreign exchange offices, the casinos and the tourism agencies,” ?one said.

According to ?one, the price of the equipment processing the cash and tracing the counterfeit money ranges between 2,000 and 5,000 dollars, depending on the facilities these machines offer.

Eutron Invest Romania was established in 1993 by a foreign natural person and two Romanian legal persons and is a direct importer of fiscal cashier desks, card and labels special printers, cash processors and bar code scanners. Eutron registers annual turnover of 2.8 million dollars.