Guillaume Lepecq

CashEssentials will be holding a one-day seminar entitled ‘Understanding the Costs of Payments’ in Madrid on the 20th of April 2020. The seminar will bring together economists, researchers, academics and payment experts.

Visa will pay shops to offer cashback in rural locations in the United Kingdom.

Financial inclusion programmes play an increasingly important part in international development but two researchers find that the effects on economic poverty are small and inconsistent.

The four major Belgian banks will follow the example of Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands and will pool their ATM networks under a single white label brand.

As bushfires devastate the south-east of Australia, many towns are suffering power, internet or phone outages. For many, cash is the only way to pay for water, food and emergency supplies.

In the latest move to promote digital payments, the Indian tax authority has announced that from February 2020, retailers with annual sales exceeding Rs 50 million ($700,800) will be fined Rs 5,000 ($70) per day if they fail to provide solutions for the acceptance of digital payments.

The British Retail Consortium has published its latest Payment Survey which shows that credit card spending overtook cash spending in 2018. Debit cards remain the most popular method of payment, accounting for almost three-in-five transactions.

20 European banks are planning the launch of the Pan-European Payment System Initiative -PEPSI - to challenge the dominance of Visa and MasterCard in Europe and counter Big Tech firms.

Early October, LINK the UK's main ATM network inroduced a £1 million fund to support the installation of free-to-use cash machines in remote communities. In less than a month, over 100 applications were received.

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Australian Dollar, the Royal Australian Mint and Australia Post have launched a coin hunt, inviting children to collect 26 limited edition coins. The coins feature quintessentially Australian icons including didgeridoos, lamingtons and quokkas.

The Italian government is considering measures to reduce cash usage with the aim of fighting against tax evasion.

A surprising move for a company which is better known for waging a war on cash, Mastercard will now pay shops to dispense it to customers.

The European Payments Council publishes a revised version of its Recirculation Paper first published in June 2018. The paper aims to foster further cash efficiency particularly within the retail cash cycle, between consumers retailers and Payments Service Providers.

The European Consumer Association BEUC has published a position paper ‘Cash versus Cashless: Consumers need a right to use cash. The paper makes recommendations for EU level actions to ensure that consumers have a non-discriminatory right to access and use cash.

Cash in circulation is growing in most countries at a faster pace than GDP. But what factors are driving demand for cash ?

The US Congress has published a comprehensive analysis of the state of cash in the US and explores the implications of the decline of cash usage for payments.

The Deutsche Bundesbank reports that there is no evidence that restricting cash usage is effective in limiting the illegal use of cash

Demonetisation has not fought, but has largely strengthened the informal economy. It has also probably further marginalised those without supportive networks. With cashless policies flourishing in various parts of the world, these findings have major implications, seriously questioning their merit, especially among the most marginalised segments of the population.