Deutsche Bundesbank hosted the 2023 meeting of the Central Bank GS1 User Group. Representatives of ten NCBs, ECB and five GS1 Member Organisations (MO) met in Düsseldorf for a wide-ranging exchange of ideas on GS1 Standards in cash logistics.

On 27 June the group`s NCB participants visited the modern branch of Deutsche Bundesbank in Dortmund. First, some key facts of the branch were presented, illustrated by a video before a guided tour took place.

On 28 June, the Secretary opened the annual meeting of the Central Bank GS1 User Group with a presentation of the results of the stocktaking on the use of GS1 Standards at NCBs. The survey focussed on three thematic blocks: cash operations with customers, internal branch operations and central bank supply operations. The results will be published on this website.

After introducing Notes-Held-To-Order (NHTO) and Coins-Held-To-Order (CHTO) schemes last year, Banque de France (BdF) reported about the experience and findings. BdF has developed a set of GS1 messages to cover every process in the communication between the NHTO/CHTO site and the BdF. 

The US Federal Reserve informed the User Group about the progress of their E-Manifest Readiness project that enables banks, Cash-in-Transit companies and IT solution providers of the cash sector to connect to the US Federal Reserve branches by means of GS1 Standards. In 2023, production pilots were conducted all over the US.

Banca de España concluded that the cash market shifts to the private sector and that there is a strong need to be more efficient to ensure a smooth cash supply. The participants agreed and discussed how the cash cycle could be optimised by the GS1 standards. 

The participants looked for options to improve printing works deliveries and cross-border bulk transfers between NCBs. This included ideas of process optimisation, update of the bulk transfer messages to the new GS1 XML format and a GS1 identifier for pallet seals. GS1 France presented a prototyped pallet seal with a 2 dimension barcode and asked the NCBs to check if its use is feasible. 

DBB presented its project CARE to strengthen cash resilience in the cash cycle. The idea is to create a real-time picture of all cash points and all professional cash handlers that is accessible to all participants.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan reported about their project progress to modernise the cash cycle, which includes the use of SAP S/4 Hana and the construction of automated cash centres using GS1 standards.