UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 5, 2019. 467 counterfeit banknotes imitating the Bank of Russia’s currency units got detected within Sverdlovsk Region’s banking sector last year. This was 42% less than one year previously, when 812 fake currency units got detected, the Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s PR Department reports.

The most frequently forged banknotes were 5,000-ruble ones: 339 such bills were found in 2018, which amounted to 73% of all the forged bills. Added to this were 88 1,000-ruble fakes (four times less than in 2017) and 3 2,000-ruble ones (very poorly and obviously forged).

500-ruble, 100-ruble, and 50-ruble bills apparently interest the forgers no longer: only 14 such fakes got detected last year, and this number is declining by the year.

‘Russian banks identify the forged banknotes and take the case to the law-enforcement agencies on their own in more than 63% of all instances. This means the tellers and clerks keep improving their professionals expertise and pay close attention to possible fakes,’ says Head of the Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s Cash Turnover Department Maxim Artemyev.

The banks supervised by the Bank of Russia’s Ural division (including those operating in Sverdlovsk Region) identified 2,306 forged banknotes in 2018, which was 27% less than one year previously.