Note Printing Australia (NPA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

(RBA) that produces

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

s and

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

s. It was corporatised in July 1998 and is located in Craigieburn, Melbourne. NPA has its origins as a subsidiary of the

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busine ...

and was established in 1913 to print banknotes for Australia. After printing paper banknotes for 75 years, NPA introduced the first

polymer banknote Polymer banknotes are banknotes made from a synthetic polymer such as biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Such notes incorporate many security features not available in paper banknotes, including the use of metameric inks. Polymer banknot ...

technology in 1988. NPA print banknotes for several other countries as well as Australia due to the high standards of durability and difficulty of counterfeiting.

NPA polymer banknotes

In the mid 1960s Australia was hit by forgeries of the newly introduced $10 paper decimal note. In response, the

and Note Printing Australia commissioned the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

to find better ways to secure the Australian currency. This led to the development of the

, which the NPA took into production and introduced in 1988. NPA has since focused heavily in promoting the benefits of the polymer technology they developed. According to internal RBA documents, NPA's printing costs in 2012 were 34¢ per note.

Use of polymer banknote technology in Australia and other countries

While NPA was initially involved in the production of the polymer substrate, a subsidiary company was created in 1996 that effectively removed NPA from this aspect of the banknote supply chain. Today, polymer substrate is manufactured in Australia by CCL Secure, which is wholly owned by

CCL Industries CCL Industries Inc. is a Toronto, Ontario-based company founded in 1951. It describes itself as the world's largest label maker. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and is an S&P/TSX 60 Component. CCL consists of five divisions – ...

, a Canadian publicly listed company. Polymer banknotes are now issued in more than 60 countries worldwide, including

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Since 1988, NPA has printed more than 10 billion banknotes for 19 countries on more than 80 denominations. NPA has won numerous awards for its business and printing capability. In 2020, NPA won the Currency Services Award by the London-based industry organisation ''Central Banking'' and won a Printing Industry Craftsmanship Awards Gold Medal for the design and production of the Solomon Islands new $5 polymer banknote.

Printing equipment

Note Printing Australia is a

security printing 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 ...

facility, that uses a number of special printers not available to the general printing industry.

2014 mention in Victorian Supreme Court suppression order

NPA was mentioned in a leaked

suppression order A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...

of the

Supreme Court of Victoria The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court compri ...

in Melbourne. The order, by Justice

Elizabeth Hollingworth Elizabeth Hollingworth is a Trials Division justice at the Supreme Court of Victoria. She was appointed to the bench in June 2004, after a 15-year career as a lawyer beginning in 1989. In June 2014, Hollingworth made an order banning any repor ...

, which forbids publication of corruption allegations against named government officials of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, includes a specific exemption allowing the

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or, informally, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecuting service and government agency within the portfolio of the Attorney-General of A ...

to pass banned information on to NPA.

References

External links

* {{Australian currency Mints of Australia Commonwealth Government-owned companies of Australia Australian companies established in 1913 Banknote printing companies Reserve Bank of Australia Printing companies of Australia Companies based in Melbourne Buildings and structures in the City of Hume