Reports and Publications

The ECB paper ‘Foreign demand for euro banknotes’ provides a thorough analysis of the drivers for international demand and estimates that between 30 and 50% of the total value of banknotes circulate outside the euro zone.

This glossary is designed first and foremost as an educational tool. It aims to help the cash community use the right word in the right situation.

A new study by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) concludes that cash plays an essential role in society. The cash infrastructure is under pressure and this threatens the access to and acceptance of cash as a means of payment. DNB has therefore commissioned an external study on the future sustainability of the cash infrastructure.

The ECB SPACE study investigates the Payment Attitudes of Consumers in the Euro Area in 2019. It concludes that 73% of Point-of-Sale and Person-to person payments were made using cash. In value terms, cash accounted for 48% of all transactions.

The review analyses the acceleration of the ‘cash paradox’ during the pandemic: declining cash transactions and increasing precautionary demand for banknotes. It also publishes the findings of laboratory testing on the risks of transmission of Covid-19 via banknotes.

A new report by H.E. Reimers, F. Schneider and F. Seitz analyses the determinants of cash holdings of private households in the euro area between 2002 and 2019 and aims to shed light on the complex relationship between cash holdings on the one hand and transaction volumes, store of value motives, alternative payment instruments, the size of the shadow economy and crisis-related as well as precautionary demand on the other.

In his latest comprehensive study, former Bank of Israel Cash Department head, Mordechai Fein, explores and reveals the drivers behind people’s continuing, resolute use of cash, despite the global context of rapidly developing electronic payments.

The pandemic has seen a sharp acceleration in payment fraud. But this is not a new phenomenon. A report based on 2014-2018 data for 52 countries provides a comprehensive taxonomy of payment fraud for both cash and electronic payments and offers an empirical estimation of the value of fraud with cash and cards.

Cash and Crises, a series of financial literacy video series by CashEssentials releases its sixth episode with a social mission to support the relief and development community in understanding how cash is managed for society in times of crisis.

During this webinar, our panel combining industry experts and futurists, discussed five tensions that will shape the future of cash and drafted a Futures Table, a tool for imagining radical futures. The session is the first part of a series of three webinars aimed at using Futures Literacy to imagine the Future of Cash. The second Webinar will be held on 9 June 2020 @ 14:00 CEST!

The Bank for International Settlements has published a report analyzing how the pandemic has fueled public concerns that the coronavirus may be spread by cash: "Covid-19, cash, and the future of payments". The pandemic could broaden the divide in access to payment instruments and negatively impact the most vulnerable people.

Deutsche Bank Research has published a series of three reports on the future of payments. They predict that cash will be around for decades to come. Digital payments will grow at light speed leading to the death of cards.