Central banks keep security-sensitive cash tasks in house
Most outsource capital-intensive work, with printing the most common
Printing is the cash cycle function central banks are most likely to hand to a third party, the Currency Benchmarks 2026 show.
Of the 37 central banks that answered the survey, 27 (73%) outsource printing and 22 (59.5%) outsource design. Security-sensitive tasks like counterfeit detection (13.5%) are rarely outsourced, and most central banks also keep sorting in house. Only one bank outsources data analytics.
Most respondents outsource only a handful of functions: 13 (35.1%) of the 37 banks
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