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Prosegur Cash has launched a comprehensive sustainability plan with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of its activities. The company aims to achieve a 1.5% reduction in the direct CO2 emissions of its armoured fleet by 2020. To do so, the main levers are the hybridisation and electrification of their vehicles.

ECB President Christine Lagarde gave a speech at the Deutsche Bundesbank Conference on online banking and payments in the digital world. The speech addresses cash, European sovereignty and central bank digital currencies.

The use of cash fell substantially in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic with the acceleration in online shopping and contactless payments – but cash usage has bounced back as lockdown has eased. Long-term prospects for retail payments remain uncertain.

The Royal Australian Mint is launching the donation dollar, aimed at encouraging Australians to donate for charity. The Mint plans to produce one for every Australian.

With the coronavirus pandemic moving past the six-month mark, one of the first notable side effects was a reduction in the use of physical greenbacks. The cash-out had several drivers: Most retail stores were closed or saw their operations greatly reduced, virtually all bars and restaurants that remained open could provide takeout service only, almost everyone who was able to began working from home, and online shopping from Amazon and other home-delivery options boomed.

A coalition of 51 consumer, privacy, and civil rights groups express support for legislation which would prohibit brick-and-mortar retailers from refusing to accept cash or charging consumers more for paying with cash.

According to the recently published Annual Report of the Reserve Bank of India, cash in circulation grew by 14.7% in value and 6.6% in volume between March 2020 and March 2019.

The mythical war on cash is not new, far from it. It is however often unclear who is waging it. During the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the enemies of cash have become more outspoken.Here are some of those who want to get rid of cash.

The Federal Reserve highlighted the research and experimentation undertaken in partnership with the MIT to enhance its understanding of the opportunities and risks associated with central bank digital currencies.

Recent research undertaken by the Mint Directors' Conference and member mints has confirmed that Covid-19 has accelerated the use of digital payments - and that the move to contactless transactions has thrown the spotlight on inequalities.

The IBDA and CashEssentials have been joined by other industry organisations - including ATMIA, BnEI, IACA, ICA and Reconnaissance International - to develop an initiative to support global recovery post Covid-19 by bringing together all actors in our community. They are calling this initiative, ‘HUMANIA’ but the project name will be confirmed upon launch of the initiative in September 2020.

China’s antitrust agency is looking at whether to launch a probe into Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay, prompted by the central bank which argues the digital payment giants have used their dominant positions to quash competition.