speech security printing : a central banker's perspective – welcome address to high security printing asia lindsay boulton [ * ] assistant governor ( business services ) hsp asia conference melbourne – 5 december 2017 introduction good morning. welcome to high security printing asia 2017 and, for those who have travelled from overseas, welcome to melbourne, australia. i take this opportunity to also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are gathered, the people of the kulin nation, and, on behalf of everyone here, pay my respects to the kulin elders past, present and emerging. i am honoured to be presenting the welcoming address this morning, especially as this is the first time that australia has been the host country in the sixteen - year history of the conference. my address is also presented with considerable pride as australia can claim a number of significant achievements in security printing. we were the first country to develop and issue polymer banknotes into general circulation, beginning with a single - denomination commemorative note in 1988. all five denominations of australian banknotes have now been printed on polymer for over twenty years, which has kept counterfeiting of our banknotes low and production costs contained. we continued the innovation with the introduction of a world - first top - to - bottom clear window in our new banknote series, which we began releasing last year. the second note in the new series – our ten dollar – was released just over two months ago and a new $ 50 is scheduled for release in just under twelve months from now. australia was also one of the first countries to embed microchips containing biometric information into its passports, which, similar to banknotes, has helped to protect australian passports from counterfeiting. it has also helped the secure movement of travellers through our air and sea ports. i would like to open the conference with some general observations on developments in the security printing industry in recent years as well some thoughts on the industry's outlook. you won't be surprised that most of my comments will focus on the banknote segment of the industry given my central bank background. i will, of course, also focus on the asian region, not just because this is the asian part of the high security printing conference series but because this region represents approximately half of the global high security printing market and is around four times larger than the industry's next largest market region. what happens in this region is a significant representation of the industry's global performance. let me begin with some

been here for more than one and a half centuries. but better late than never! having started late, the promoters of the new bank that we are launching this evening have taken care to put all the potential for growth that they can get, all the possible source of competitiveness that they can find on their side. that's why they have searched far and wide from australia, south africa, singapore, india and canada 2 to get the best talents they can find to buttress their team to ensure that “ bank different 3 ” is not just an empty slogan, that standard bank emerging financial markets conference 2007, cape town. mauritius made headlines on the eve of this conference by ranking first in the mo ibrahim index which rates governance in africa. it made headlines again the very next day by ranking first in the global african competitiveness index of the world bank and the international finance corporation. the company has shareholders from mauritius and south africa ; board directors from mauritius, south africa, singapore and india. the chief executive officer is canadian and the software provider is australian. this is the slogan unveiled by afrasia bank at the launching ceremony. “ bank different ” actually means something that will be a win - win not only for the bank ’ s promoters but also for the consumers of banking and financial services here in mauritius. so, i am delighted to be here for all these reasons. i am delighted because it means more competition. i am delighted because there will be more pressure on banks to revise their spreads to give still better value to all our economic operators in mauritius. we want our island to be internationally competitive. that's the only way to us to survive. with scarce natural resources, and with only our brain power and skills going for us, we have to make sure that we are efficient. the minister of finance, i am sure, was delighted to hear about the excellent profit record of the banking community, which mr arnaud lagesse, chairman of afrasia bank, has been talking about earlier on. this must be giving the minister some ideas for his next budget! we have nothing against profits ; we encourage banks to make profits and we hope that afrasia bank will become very profitable, very quickly. because if there is one thing that central bankers do not like, it is insolvent banks! just ask mr mervyn king about what's happening right now in england and he will tell you that it is largely because one particular business model, followed by one particular operator – northern