In March, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System published an International Finance Discussion Paper on the demand for US banknotes at home and abroad , an important question given that the US dollar is used as a medium of exchange and store of value outside its own borders far more than any other currency.

Regional conflicts, rampant inflation, national debt crises, and the resurgence of monetary sovereignty are all contributing to the reshaping of the world’s currencies.

In 2019 the Central Bank of Kenya demonetised the KES 1,000 banknote. It has issued a comprehensive report on its experience that offers interesting lessons for any central bank planning such an exercise.

With the publication of the IMF paper ‘Measurement and Use of Cash by Half the World’s Population’, and the Cash Essentials rebuttal, a new paper about demand forecasting by the Banca d’Italia is timely and adds to the discussion.

The Bank for International Settlements Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure consists of 14 Advanced Economy and 13 Emerging Market Economy countries. It collects extensive data on their cash and electronic payments and uses these to draw conclusions about payment trends.

The International Currency Association (ICA), representing the global currency sector, has published a Cash Policy White Paper, available on its website www.currencyassociation.org, which is summarised here. It wants policy makers to recognise that the benefits of cash to society may be lost without practical steps to protect the supply and acceptance of cash in society and promote its further development.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has created an open access database of data relating to retail payment for 95 countries from September 2019 to June 2022.

Cash Works… But It Could Work Even Better! This is the title of the Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions white paper on cash innovation & sustainability.

A newly issued Cash Innovation whitepaper by Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions takes a deeper look at why change and innovation are actually required in the way cash is organised and managed in society, while defining the problems that need to be fixed and how to fix them.

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.