Riksbank launches app as drive to publicise new notes and coins accelerates

Sveriges Riksbank has launched its first smartphone app as part of a broad communications push aimed at educating the public about its new banknote and coin series.

The Riksbank today (July 29) unveiled a "major information campaign", which hopes to reach the estimated 25% of the population that is still unaware of the impending changes.

The new notes will to be introduced from October this year, starting with the 20, 50, 200 and 1,000 krona denominations. The remaining denominations, 100 and 500 krona, and the new 1, 2 and 5 krona coins, will be introduced in October 2016.

The old notes and coins, which have been in circulation for around 30 years, will be phased out starting next year.

The central bank hopes to reach much of the population via their smartphones, which around 70% of Swedes now have access to. A new app includes a game for identifying when each note is phased in or out, an interactive guide to security features, and an aid to the visually impaired where governor Stefan Ingves reads the note's value aloud when the note is held in front of the phone's camera.

"It is important for people to know when the current notes‎ become invalid and when the new ones are issued. There are also new security features which are easier to visualise via an app, rather than via print," Ann-Leena Mikiver, the Riksbank's head of communications, told Central Banking.

The app was developed in conjunction with external designers. Mikiver says the Riksbank would consider expanding its collection of apps if the first one proves a success.

"People find information in completely other ways compared to only, say, five years ago. We need to adapt to new information habits," she said.

It will be hard for Swedish people to avoid the Riksbank's communication onslaught. Those without smartphones are likely to be reached as every household in Sweden receives a pamphlet through their front door in September.

The Riksbank has also made a short film about the new notes, it will be holding exhibitions on the six individuals featured on the notes at six different locations in Sweden, and it continues to inform people via its website and through the media.

The new notes feature updated security features including security ribbons and threads, watermarks, see-through and colour-shifting images, raised text, UV images and fibres, and "micro-text" hidden in parts of the images. They are printed on a cotton-based substrate.