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5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 MAY 2018 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But the news has not been wel- comed by the authorities at the Riksbank that controls the coun- try's currency. In a comment to MaltaToday, a spokesperson for the bank said Crane had notified the Riksbank last week that they will no longer print banknotes at their facility in Tumba. "The Riksbank's agreement with Crane clearly stipulates that the printing of Swedish notes should take place at Tumba. Printing Swedish banknotes on Malta would in that respect vio- late the agreement between the Riksbank and Crane," spokes- person Tomas Lundberg said. When asked what had moti- vated the Riksbank's decision to prevent the printing of Swedish banknotes in Malta, the spokes- person said the central bank had never considered printing its banknotes in Malta. "The first requirements for participating in the procure- ment to get an agreement to print Swedish banknotes has been for the banknotes to be printed in northern and or cen- tral Europe. When Crane won the last procurement we clari- fied further in the agreement that the banknotes had to be printed in Tumba. In line with that, printing the Swedish bank- notes in Malta has never been an option. "The Riksbank is now continu- ing to work to find a good solu- tion for the continued produc- tion of Swedish banknotes." The reaction also came hot on the heels of a broadcast on Swedish TV4 News earlier in the week, which delved into the role of the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri in secur- ing the €100 million investment from Crane Currency. Joseph Muscat had already described Schembri – whose group of companies includes a paper merchant as well as a print engineering unit – as "the cata- lyst in making sure that things get done" in negotiations with the Boston currency giant. It later transpired that Schem- bri's company, Kasco Technical Services, was the Malta agent for Komori, a company that sup- plies Crane's printing machines. The Opposition Nationalist Par- ty cried foul, accusing Schembri of a blatant conflict of interest as a result of his business interest in the deal. Schembri had however said Kasco would not be supplying Crane with any machinery but that it could carry out servic- ing for the American currency printing company. "Having knowledge of the industry, I can confirm that currency printing machinery requires strict secu- rity features and specifications and therefore such machinery is not acquired through third par- ties but directly from the manu- facturer." According to the Riksbank's head of payments, Christina Weishammar, any future print- ing of krona will be limited to northern Europe once the Riks- bank issues a new tender for the currency printing. She was an- swering questions from business newspaper Dagens Industri as to whether Crane could win a new procurement contract, using its Malta facility. News of the Tumba closure has now prompted criticism by Swedish MPs, among them Moderate Party MP Lotta Ols- son who asked finance minister Per Bolund to change the rules and ensure that Swedish bank- notes are printed in Sweden. "My belief is that you must have a banknote that is physically in Sweden. It feels very strange if it is sent abroad… Even though we do not use paper money every- day, we have to think about what happens during a crisis," Olsson told Aftonbladet. NEWS Riksbank doesn't want krona printed in Malta