Polymer notes have been issued in over 20 countries, and have been very successful in Mexico.  Banco de Mexico issued their first polymer notes, the 20 Pesos, in 2002.  Then in 2006 they issued the 50 Pesos in polymer. Polymer notes have been issued in central and south America, in Guatemala, Brasil and Chile.  Against this background, early in 2007 Securency International and Banco de México entered a joint-venture agreement to establish a polymer security substrate manufacturing plant in Mexico. Securency México was born.

A First stone ceremony was held at the construction site on the 3rd July 2007 to commemorate the purchase of the Mexican plant site in Querétaro. Securency México was officially opened on the 9th December 2008. Querétaro is situated 230 kilometers north of Mexico City.  This is the first substrate plant built outside of Australia and will be operational in early 2009.  

The establishment of the plant in Mexico will provide better service to the customers in the region giving them improved logistics and delivery timelines, lower freight costs and contact with Spanish-speaking suppliers. 

DR JAIME PACREU
DIRECTOR GENERAL SECURENCY MÉXICO

In October 2007, Dr. Pacreu was appointed Director General of Securency México, S. A. de C. V, a joint venture between Banco de México and Securency International Pty Ltd, which was established to produce the Guardian^® substrate in the Americas. 

His professional life began at Mexico’s National University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), as assistant professor of Electronics and Probability.  He later joined Mexico’s Central Bank, Banco de México, in 1972 until 2006, providing 34 years of service, of which 23 were involved in currency management. In this area he headed the Printing Works, was Principal Cashier and finally General Director for Currency Issue.

At Banco de México, Dr. Pacreu participated and headed many projects, several of which have obtained international recognition. These included the restructuring and modernisation of Mexico’s Banknote Printing Works, the change of the monetary unit of México and the use of polymer as a substrate to print some of the Mexican banknote denominations.

Jaime was a key organiser of the Currency Development Advisory Group (Canada, Colombia, México and the USA), the Latin-American Treasurers Conference (Latin-American countries plus Canada, the USA, Spain, Portugal, France and ECB) and the technical seminars for Cash Department employees of Spanish speaking central banks.

Qualifications

• Physics Degree from Mexico’s National University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)-1972
• University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada
  1975 - Masters in Applied Sciences and Operations Research
  1980 - Ph. D in Management Sciences