They can safely put up their prices because G&D (De) and 3M (US) can't be trusted
..as long as it's customers wants it's IDs & money secure as possible.
There's no alternative to De La Rue in my opinion
If anything, Mi6-types are discreet.
Some issues but the Germans cannot be trusted, being so close to Russia: ‘In the highly developed world of banknote printing, secrecy is paramount, because none of the central banks want their super anti-forgery device talked about,’ says banking expert Michael Jones, who was a senior executive at the Bank of England.
At one point De La Rue toyed with the idea of taking over its long-term rival G&D, but its approach was rebuffed by the Germans, who bristled at the idea of being consumed by a British company.
One industry insider said, ‘There was a lax management culture, and below senior-management level, people were doing things that were detrimental to the business. They were cutting corners.’
Ex-Mi6 employees involved? Must have good security then! That's why the UK now uses them to print our passports I guess.
{OLD ARTICLE} dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1320222/What-went-wrong-British-company-licence-print-money.html
economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-8