Financial instruments such as share certificates, bonds, and other high-value documents must combine efficiency and high-level security. Nanografi Inks offer proprietary pigments and additives that integrate seamlessly into offset printing workflows, delivering robust anti-counterfeiting features without compromising clarity or throughput.
Financial Documents Security Ink Solutions
- UV Offset Security Inks
- IR Security Inks
- Visible Inks
- UV Curing Security Inks
Security Printing Solutions for Finance
Financial printing covers instruments whose value is not in the paper but in what the document represents: currency, payment cards, share certificates, bonds and cheques. They are handled constantly, checked by people with no security training, and increasingly processed by machines — sorting equipment, ATMs, payment terminals and back-office scanners.
That combination sets the requirement. A financial document has to be recognisable at a glance, verifiable in a second with a simple tool, readable by machine, and durable enough to survive years of circulation without losing any of those properties. Security inks carry all of it inside the printed layer.
Authentication in Financial Documents
Financial instruments are normally protected in layers, so that a counterfeit which passes one check still fails another:
Overt: visible inks carry the design and colour scheme, holding colour fidelity at high offset print speeds and resisting fading in circulation.
Covert: UV offset security inks stay invisible in daylight and fluoresce under 365 nm long wave or 254 nm short wave illumination — the check a cashier makes with a UV lamp.
Machine-readable: IR security inks work through infrared absorption or reflection, which is what allows automated verification in sorting and validation equipment.
Forensic: bi- and tri-fluorescent formulations respond differently at different wavelengths, giving a second-level check when an instrument is disputed.
Relevant Ink Technologies
The ink system follows the substrate. Paper-based instruments — banknotes, certificates, bonds, cheques — are printed with conventional oxidative-drying inks, where the film develops through oxidation and absorption. Polymer instruments such as bank cards use UV curing security offset inks, which polymerise under ultraviolet exposure and adhere to plastic surfaces. Both systems can carry UV, IR, visible and thermochromic components. See the full offset security ink portfolio.
Typical Financial Applications
Currency and security paper printing uses conventional offset systems carrying visible, UV and IR components, so a note can be checked by the public, by a cashier with a UV lamp and by high-speed sorting equipment. See banknote and security paper printing.
Card bodies are PVC, PET or polycarbonate, so UV curing security offset inks are used for their adhesion and fast cure on polymer surfaces. See bank card printing.
High individual value, short print runs and irregular verification make covert UV features a low-cost, practical protection. See documents of value.
Combining UV fluorescent inks with hidden pantographs and other printed security features significantly reduces the risk of counterfeiting on payment documents.
Institutional financial records benefit from the same layered approach: an overt printed design combined with a covert UV check that requires no reader or database.
Why Security Inks Are Used in Financial Printing
Verification at the counter: a UV lamp is enough for a first-line check, with no reader and no connectivity.
Machine compatibility: IR features support automated validation in sorting and payment equipment.
Rub resistance and lamination-friendly behaviour for instruments in constant circulation.
Customisable colour profiles so security features are designed into the artwork rather than added on top of it.
Resistance to photocopying and scanning, which is the most common attack on a printed financial document.
Fogra certification and quality assurance across the Nanografi security ink portfolio.
CONTACT
Discuss Your Financial Printing Project
Tell us about the instrument, the substrate and how it will be verified, and our technical team will come back with the relevant ink options.