Incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney has hinted that he could bring Canadian-style plastic cash with him.
The Bank of Canada will begin circulating the new $20 bill, Canada's most widely used bank note, on Wednesday, 7 November 2012.
The Bank of Canada will begin circulating the new $50 bill - the first of the polymer bank note series that will be available in automated banking machines - on Monday, 26 March 2012.
The Bank of Canada unveiled a new polymer bank note series today at its head office in Ottawa. Information on the polymer material and advanced new security features was released, along with the images and designs of the soon-to-be-issued $100 and $50 bank notes, and the themes for the remaining notes in the series.
Canada is set to dump cotton paper bank notes in favour of longer lasing plastic versions next year.
Varya Taylor of the Bank of Canada analyses the results of a survey of consumers' payment habits and their perceptions of cash and its alternatives, including their confidence in the security of bank notes.
Bank of Canada has licensed technology from New York-based trading systems vendor OpenLink to support its public sector fiscal duties.
Laurentian Bank of Canada is to outsource its credit card processing business to First Data Corp.
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