• provide credit institutions and professional cash handlers with assistance in complying with the obligations laid down in Article 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1338/2001;
• effectively implement a common policy regarding banknote recycling by credit institutions and other professional cash handlers in order to avoid competitive distortions within the euro area;
• contribute to the establishment of a single euro cash area;
• recommend that credit institutions and other professional cash handlers observe due diligence standards concerning the handling of euro banknotes so as to contribute to maintaining the quality and genuineness of euro banknotes in circulation.

This framework, however, has been replaced. On 16 September 2010 the ECB adopted a Decision on the authenticity and fitness checking and recirculation of euro banknotes (Decision ECB/2010/14), which entered into force on 1 January 2011.