Last year, the International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA) held a virtual conference. One speaker, Dr Franklin Noll, presented his thoughts on how we’ll be paying in ten years time.

A recent article by RBC demonstrated that in Canada the use of cash as a proportion of GDP decreased from 4.8% in 1961 to 2.9% in 1981. From then until about 2008/9 it held steady at about the 3% level. Since then it has risen steadily reaching 4.4% in 2021.

Cryptocurrencies are in a strange place. There were 18,465 cryptocurrencies as of March 2022, although perhaps only 10,363 are active. There are over 300 million users worldwide and more than 18,000 businesses now accept some form of crypto as payment.

Deutsche Bank is to require from July any of its vendors with a contract over €500,000 a year to undertake a vendor sustainability rating assessment with EcoVadis, or another eligible rating agency.

There is a belief that banking can become purely digital. During the pandemic cash usage fell and we couldn’t visit bank branches. Banks were quick to close ATMs and branches, justifying this as customer choice.

At a BIS event, the Central Bank of Chile announced that it is delaying its planned digital roll out to undertake further work on the benefits and risks.

The Central Bank of Nigeria is planning to introduce Bank Neutral Cash Hubs. It has issued a consultation paper en route to issuing final guidelines, and the draft proposals lay out the CBN’s vision and intentions.

Brett Scott’s new book has just been published. It reads easily, flowing along at a great pace. The book lays out with wonderful clarity what money is, how every type of ‘money’ has become what it is from cash to CBDCs, with every variant in between, and how the financial system works and interconnects.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey carried out its first ever Methods of Payment Survey in September/October 2020.

A Cash and Payments Sustainability Forum™ will be held in Edinburgh in the UK on 15-16 November. More information about the event can be found at cashandpaymentsustainabilityforum.com.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has published its diary of consumer payment choice based on its 2021 research.

The announcement by the UK government that it will legislate in the Financial Services and Markets bill to protect cash by ensuring continued access to withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK has led to a series of pieces in the UK’s media about cash.

Forecasting cash in circulation (CIC) is a key activity of central banks as it is an important variable in monetary policymaking, affecting overall liquidity in the economy and guiding their currency issuance operations.

The second CBDC Conference will take place 29-31 August 2022 in Frankfurt. The organiser is now publishing new speakers regularly on the conference website, www.cbdc-conference.com.

At the High Security Printing Latin America™ conference in March, Linda Rodríguez Casarrubias, Manager of Process Re-engineering and Development, presented the work being done by the Banco de México on sustainability.

The National Bank of Denmark has issued an analysis paper looking at the use of cash in society. Denmark has one of the lowest levels of cash usage in Europe with only Norway and Sweden with lower levels. While the pandemic has reduced cash usage, there are clear signs that Danes still value cash.

Socash, the Singapore-based technology company with an app that connects consumers and merchants so that consumers can deposit, withdraw and make payments with cash at the point of sale in shops, has signed a definitive agreement to be bought by Nium.

Carbon offsetting is a much talked about option but poorly understood. It may feel like ‘cheating’ or not delivering genuine benefits to reduce carbon emissions. This article looks at the why and how of carbon offsetting to answer these questions.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents a range of US retailers, has written to the US Treasury Department asking for help to get the public to spend their accumulated coins. The retailers are facing a shortage of coins similar to early in the pandemic.

The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act (ECASH) has been introduced in the US Congress by Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat and chair of the House Task Force on Financial Technology. The bill directs the US Treasury Department to conduct a pilot program for a version of digital dollars that work just like cash in that they would be stored on hardware, not in bank accounts.