Guillaume Lepecq

Swiss payments services provider Six published a white paper on “The Future of Money”. The scenario-planning exercise designs seven medium-term scenarios, which all involve a sharp decline in cash demand or its disappearance. Meanwhile, the Swiss payment card network crashed on 19 November.

An increasing number of countries are taking a close look at the evolution of their cash infrastructure to ensure the future continuity of cash services, particularly as commercial banks optimise their branch and ATM networks. Other countries are taking measures to restrict cash usage.

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

The argument that cash fuels the shadow economy is commonplace. It has been used by Kenneth Rogoff, Larry Summers and Peter Sands and many others. On the other hand, for Yves Mersch, Member of the Board of the European Central Bank "No particular link can be established statistically between cash and criminal activities. The focus must be on the fight against crime. Cash must not be made the scapegoat."

The World Payment Report estimates the non-cash transactions grew by 12% during 2016-2017. Cash in circulation is also growing and is outpacing digital payments in a third of the countries examined.

GLORY has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire 53% of shares in Cash Payment Solutions GmbH, which develops and provides online cash settlement platforms under the brands ‘Barzahlen’ and ‘viacash’.

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.

With the launch of Amazon PayCode, US customers now have it easier by purchasing their online shopping items with cash thanks to Amazon’s latest checkout payment option.

Cash Management Company Brink’s innovates with a new business model for ATMs in remote locations.

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.

The Danish Central Bank has conducted a survey of the payment behaviour of Danish households in the Spring of 2017. The findings were published in December in 2017. The report concludes that while cash usage is declining and is expected to continue to do so in the future, Denmark is not becoming cashless and Danes will be able to use and hold cash in the future.