Despite India’s government implementing schemes, such as the demonetisation of all 500 and 1000-rupee notes in 2016, to encourage the country to go cashless, there is still high demand for banknotes. According to the Global Cash Index™, cash continues to hold a significant role in Indian culture and is seeing growth rather than decline - cash is still very much king in the region.

Commenting on the popularity of cash in the region Marcus Tiedt, Sales & Marketing Director of Innovative Technology Ltd (ITL) said, “With over a billion people living in India a large percentage of them still transact in cash and are not part of the official tax network. Also, the infrastructure required to go cashless needs years to catch up and be reliable, and therefore a cashless society is not currently achievable in the short term. Working closely with Chevend, our Trading Partner in the region for the past four years, we are meeting market and consumer demand to ensure that cash can be used as the preferred method of payment both securely and efficiently.”

Andy Bassam, VP of Customer Support for ITL commented, “We foresee that our latest products with the added benefit of Spectral technology will begin to see more and more demand.  We work hard with Ammaar, who heads up our partnership at Chevend, to ensure that we optimise datasets and acceptance rates on our products. The National Bank release banknotes on a yearly basis and notes in circulation can wear quickly, so keeping datasets up to date is imperative. Another major challenge in India is that the banks do not allow customers to redeem damaged and stained banknotes. This issue can be overcome by using ITL products that utilise our Spectral Technology to ensuremachines do not accept banknotes that have been damaged or stained by anti-theft devices.”

CHEVEND TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD based in India, are the proud pioneers of the Automatic Vending Concept in India and although vending is their core competence, their payment systems division has grown in prominence and turnover over the years and they provide payment systems to customers within the Kiosks and Banking sectors.  

Commenting on the Trading Partnership, Ammaar Huseini, Director at Chevend said, “We have been collaborating directly with ITL to provide their state-of-the-art cash validation products to customers throughout the whole of India since 2016. We also have an office in Dubai, so are helping to extend ITL’s reach throughout the Middle East. We offer support for a wide range ofproducts including the NV9, NV11, NV200 and BV20 where uptake in the region is substantial giving Innovative Technology significant share of the vending market.  We are delighted to have secured a significant tender for the NV10 compact, stackerless banknote validator recently to be used in government payment terminals. Looking forward, we are beginning to promote ITL’s Spectral range of note validators and recyclers to help businesses in the region reject ink-stained banknotes.”

Concluding Andy said, “We have a really good relationship with Chevend, and with Ammaar’s comprehensive local knowledge in the region I look forward to many more years working in partnership together.”

Innovative Technology, cash handling and validation experts, have partnered with several suppliers in the UK to distribute their latest product aimed at making cash payments safer and more hygienic. CashGenic was launched during the height of the COVID pandemic as a solution for those customers wanting to pay by cash safely during a time when coins and banknotes were being unjustly portrayed as high risk in terms of transmission.

Tony Morrison, ITL Group Sales Director, commented, “Whilst the World Health Organisation and other institutions found no evidence to confirm that COVID-19 can be transmitted through coins or banknotes, many retailers were strongly advising other forms of payment at the start of the crisis. We responded quickly as it is important to us to ensure that we give our customers payment choice. CashGenic technology makes cash transactions safer and more hygienic, eliminating the need for staff to handle cash while enabling social distancing during cash transactions. In addition to offering more hygienic cash payments, staff no longer need to count cash as the machine automatically does this, therefore saving time and generating greater efficiencies for the business.  Another key benefit of CashGenic is that it also helps organsations eliminate shrinkage and accounting errors as cash handling is automated.”

“Following its launch back in May, we are pleased to announce that we have already teamed up with CC Dynamic, Maggi Electronic and Tag Retail to supply our Hygienic Cash Automation Kit to the UK. The technology has been developed by us and the complete system solution can now be supplied by CC Dynamic branded as £XCHEKKA and CashConnect from Tag Retail. CC Dynamic are working with Maggi Electronics, our UK Trading Partner, who will manage the installations.”

Tony continued, “Our first installation was completed in partnership with CC Dynamic at a local fish and chip shop, The Top Chippy in Manchester. The owners are delighted with the results as it has removed the need for staff to manage cash and is allowing them to follow social distancing advice.  We have also installed CashGenic in more food take away establishments and cash and carry wholesalers in the North West of England.

The solution is a compact, all-in-one counter-top device ensuring easy customer access, with pay-in and pay-out managed by staff via a mobile tablet device. It makes cash transactions safer in a single affordable kit, has a small footprint and is easy to set up with no software integration.

Concluding Tony said, “It is important that we give consumers choice and allow them to pay by cash safely, especially in these COVID times. This new development will allow customers to have that choice. We are delighted with the take up so far in the North West of England and look forward to many more installations both in the UK and Europe over the coming months.”