1. Strategies to Beat the Counterfeiting of Money
Allister McCallum
Head of Counterfeit Analysis Centre
European Central Bank
European Serious & Organised Crime Conference
Liverpool, 5 March 2008

2. 2 basic assumptions: Consider only banknotes
coin counterfeiting is a much lower threat
Counterfeiting of money will never be beaten
but it can be reduced

3. Scale of the problem In 2007:
Approx 50,000 counterfeits were removed from circulation each month
face value: €3.3mn
Approx 12bn genuine banknotes were in daily circulation
face value €677bn

4. Factors affecting counterfeiting
Motivation
Means
Opportunity

5. Types of counterfeiter
Casual counterfeiter
Dedicated criminal counterfeiter
Hostile state counterfeiter

6. Addressing the threat Ensuring a good legal framework
Ensuring a good organisational framework
Making genuine notes harder to reproduce
Making counterfeits harder to pass

7. Questions Can we ever ‘beat’ counterfeiting?
If not, what is an ‘acceptable’ level?
What are the risks? Are they serious?
Does anything (else) need to be done? By whom?
What if there is a huge counterfeiting emergency?
How will we know?
Do informant rewards cause more harm than good?