Matt Sykes of the CPT Group in Australia, global experts in cash, payments and money systems, has written a review about whether cash can deliver on its role providing critical redundancy for national payment systems. They want to start a debate about whether the infrastructure that supports cash distribution deliver on this promise given the acute and growing strain it is under. Does a misalignment between policy assumptions and market realities risk rendering cash ineffective as a payment option in a crisis?

At May’s Currency Conference the Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) Anak Somkanae, Senior Director, Payment Infrastructure and Services Strategy and Development Department, presented on cash logistics and its significant carbon footprint and. Separately, Montira Pattanakul, Senior Director, Banknote Operations Department took part in panel discussion on the cash product from cradle to grave. These two sessions gave an excellent overview of the BOT’s cash operations.

Speaking in Kyiv at the National Bank of Ukraine, the Governor of the Bank of England (BoE) spoke about the role of central banks in the context of changing market structures and events. His speech throws an interesting light on recent developments in the US and Europe in this area.

In late February, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) gave evidence to the Economics Committee of the Australian Parliament. At the time, press reports interpreted her remarks as suggesting cash will be gone in ten years. Matt Sykes, of CPT group, has published his thoughts on the actual state of cash in Australia based on available data.

This year Microsoft turns 50. Amazon is just over 30, Meta is 21 and the iPhone is just 18. Another organisation turning 18 this year, one that has had a major impact on payments, is M-Pesa. Payments:Unpacked recently ran an article from Jeremy Light’s Agenda:Payments newsletter2 celebrating M-Pesa’s milestone birthday.

Stefan Hardt, Chief Cashier of the Bundesbank, posed this question at the recent Intergraf Currency+Identity conference in Milan. Ironically, this comes just as the Bank of England appoints Victoria Cleland to have a combined role of being Executive Director for Payments and Chief Cashier. Sarah John, the current Chief Cashier, is moving to be the Bank’s Chief Operating Officer.

On 5 February 2025, the Deutsche Bundesbank held its sixth cash symposium in Berlin. Around 120 participants from politics, industry and society attended.

The use of coin dates back over 2,500 years, and in an industry that old, it can be difficult to do anything genuinely ‘new’. Hence the excitement when NatWest hosted what’s believed to be the first ever cash hackathon at their London HQ in late November, with attendees from a range of industries, to innovate on future payment methods, and reimagine the future of cash.

While the United States and Brazil debate the use of bitcoin in their international reserves, the Banco Central de Chile, in line with its Governor's firm commitment to cash, categorically rules out this possibility, arguing that crypto assets do not meet the legal or technical criteria for their inclusion.

At the recent CBDC Conference in Istanbul a number of key themes emerged. That the given focus of this event, as its name indicates, is predominantly on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), these themes were in sharper contrast to the subsequent Digital Currency Conference in London, which had a broader remit.