I hope you enjoy this website which aims to provide an unbiased source of information and a forum for debate on the future of cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More.
Banknotes and coins are the most widely used product in the world. With 600 to 700 billion pieces in circulation, banknotes are the one product which has achieved a penetration rate close to 100%. And yet little information is available on the use of cash and the organisation of the cash cycleRepresents the various stages of the lifecycle of cash, from issuance by the central bank, circulation in the economy, to destruction by the central bank. More.
On the other hand, over the past few months, a senior commercial banker recently stated in Davos that cash will probably have disappeared in 10 years’ time; the issuing of high-denomination banknotes is being challenged in Europe and in the U.S.; governments are increasingly imposing tight limits on payments made with banknotes; bankers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark say they are aiming for a “cashless” society; a senior British economist has suggested that scrapping cash would allow the central bank to boost the economy by taxing deposits with negative interest rates. I’m afraid that the critics of cash, even well intended, don’t quite realise what the disappearance of cash would actually entail in terms of systemic risk, loss of sovereignty and personal privacy.
With a few notable exceptions, particularly in Germany and in Austria, very few people have reacted to these comments. With this website, we hope to stimulate a public debate.
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Guillaume Lepecq