Technology companies Wincor Nixdorf and Giesecke & Devrient Thursday announced during a news conference in Germany that they have formed a partnership to automate the cash cycle process. The partnership’s goal is to reduce costs by bringing more efficiency to the world’s cash-handling systems.

The collaboration will affect consumers through their banks, retailers, cash-in-transit companies and central banks, said executives of both companies. In addition, Wincor Nixdorf and Giesecke & Devrient will work closely to standardize cash-handling systems and processes. The companies also will combine their knowledge from their respective customer segments and market-access channels.

The partnership will include the establishment of a joint venture, CI Tech Components AG. The company will develop and market security technology for authenticating and processing banknotes.

During a news conference in Frankfurt, executives of Giesecke & Devrient and Wincor Nixdorf said the companies will create solutions that radically reduce the cost of cash management for individual companies and entire national economies.

Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient is a leading international technology provider. Wincor Nixdorf is one of the world’s leading providers of IT solutions. The Paderborn, Germany-based company also is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of ATMs based on annual shipments.

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Eckard Heidloff, president and CEO of Wincor Nixdorf, and Dr. Karsten Ottenburg, chairman of the management board and CEO of Giesecke & Devrient, noted that $300 billion is spent annually on cash processing worldwide. And since the euro’s introduction, the number of banknotes in circulation in euro-member countries has increased 8 percent yearly.

“This is why central bank representatives have long advocated the streamlining of cash logistics to make them as efficient as possible,” Wincor Nixdorf officials said. “This requires innovative ideas and the development of new technologies. It calls for increased delegation of the central banks’ cash-processing tasks to banks, cash-in-transit companies and retailers.”

Wincor Nixdorf already has developed a fully automated system for banks and retailers to organize their local cash cycles. The system is called CINEO, and it uses intelligent cash cassettes. Cash center employees do not need to open cassettes delivered by banks and retailers. This eliminates the need for employees to manually count and resort cash held in the containers. Giesecke & Devrient has integrated the cassettes in a processing system for cash centers.

“This partnership is another milestone in the ongoing reorganization of cash cycles, using new technology that we launched a year ago,” Heidloff said.

The joint venture, CI Tech Components AG, will be based in Burgdorf, Switzerland, and it is scheduled to begin operations in March with approximately 160 employees.

The two companies intend to use technology developed by the joint venture to expand their share of growing market for banknote authentication, sensors and modules. Both companies combined currently control a 10 percent market share. The market for banknote authentication is currently valued at $600 million worldwide, and it is predicted to reach $1 billion by 2015.

CI Tech Components’ sensors and modules will be marketed to kiosk systems of banks, retailers, postal services, railroad companies’ ticket machines and other providers self-service systems.

“All of our solutions as well as the individual hardware and software components will be developed on the basis of open standards,” Ottenberg said.

He added Wincor Nixdorf and Giesecke & Devrient are open to bringing on additional partners.

“We also are interested in persuading other strong market players to join us in the ongoing development of the technology platform and in worldwide marketing,” Ottenberg said.