This article was first published by Cash and Payment News and is republished here with permission.
At the Future of Cash conference in November, Roel van Anholt from the Dutch National Bank (DNB) explained the steps taken to strengthen cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More resilience.
Accessibility: In the Netherlands, the Cash Covenant was signed in April 2022, setting minimum standards for cash access. The number of ATMs plateaued following the Covenant being approved and cash usage stabilised in about 2020.
Now the Cash Payments Act is going through the legislative process, setting similar standards as the Covenant. It is expected to become law in 2026. One changeThis is the action by which certain banknotes and/or coins are exchanged for the same amount in banknotes/coins of a different face value, or unit value. See Exchange. More is that the distance to a source of cash is now measured as the crow flies rather than by road distance.
Availability: Availability is covered in both the Covenant and the Cash Payments Act. The Covenant requires an uptime of 97.5% for ATMs. This requirement is not yet confirmed in the new legislation.
Acceptance: The non-acceptance rate is rising in the Netherlands: the soft agreement in the Covenant is not working. In 2021, 3.3% of retail outlets did not accept cash, now it is 4.8%. This hides the fact that some types of retailer have much higher levels of non-acceptance, for example, 38% of cinemas, 21% of pharmacies.
As a result, mandatory acceptance legislation was passed in June 2025 unless exceptions apply. For example, payments over €3,000 won’t have to be accepted in cash. Further exceptions are being worked on. The European Union is also bringing acceptance legislation into force.
Affordability: Most citizens do not pay to access cash and fees have been frozen. The Cash Payments Act makes cash access free for consumers and caps fees for businesses.
Delivering cash resilience
The DNB has run publicity campaigns asking the public to hold enough cash to last 72 hours in the event of an outage — €70 for adults and €30 for children. Cash figures reflect that the public has responded to this campaign.
In two Caribbean islands that are part of the Netherlands, Saba and Statia, DNB has installed four ATMs and two cash deposit boxes. There is also now an ING bank branch in Sint Eustatius.
DNB has built a new cash centreProcessing centre for large volumes of cash, often in facilities that have special security and logistic characteristics. Cash centres can be operated by a central bank or a commercial entity (usually bank or a cash-in-transit company). More now starting to accept cash deposits in bulk with the aim of building up to receiving 3,000 per day by the second quarter of 2026. This is helping build both resilience and affordability. DNB is anticipating Geldmaat to stop doing its own cash processing.
Finally, DNB is working with key stakeholders to prepare measures for crisis situations, in particular: