This year the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) ran its European and Emerging Markets event as a roadshow with one meeting in Madrid and another in Berlin in the same week at the start of June. We report here on three presentations from the conference – an overview of Germany, a report from the European Commission on progress with the Legal Tender Cash Regulation, and a detailed report from Piraeus Bank about what is happening to cash in Greece.

In a recent paper – Public Discourse on Retail Payments and the Case of CBDC (SAFE Working Paper No. 474, April 2026) – Ulrich Bindseil, former Director General of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank, analyses how stakeholders in the retail payments industry shape public debates and policymaking. His focus is primarily on digital payments, particularly CBDCs, which he argues have triggered unprecedented public debate. Notably, while central banks’ mandate to issue cash is acknowledged, the broader discussion on the role of cash in retail payments is largely omitted.

Danmarks Nationalbank has published a paper about cash use in Denmark. The paper draws on the results of the latest survey of citizens’ payment habits, which took place in the autumn of 2025 – the latest in a series that started in 2017.

There is a very significant focus on the challenges faced when people choose to pay digitally rather than with cash. It seems to be a, if not the, core theme of conferences, publications and public policy wherever you go. Why? And should it be? Two papers reported in this edition suggest it should not – the high volume economies report from the Global Currency Forum (GCF) and the Currency Research Cash Resilience paper.

As geopolitical storms reshape global finance, cash is evolving into a strategic tool for sovereignty, resilience, and trust in an era of fragmentation and digital vulnerability.

On 12 March the first Global Cash Day reached LinkedIn, and perhaps beyond, initiated by the Cash Alliance and picked up by many players in the cash ‘industry’. This article steps back to consider how we develop it to reach further to a much wider audience.

Technological innovation is advancing at a pace that is transforming how societies pay, transact, and interact. Changes that once unfolded over decades now occur within years, fundamentally redefining the role and nature of money. As reflected in our new white paper ‘Currency Fast Forward – Future Developments of the Currency Cycle’ (click here), one insight stands above all: the future of money will not be determined by a choice between physical and digital forms, but by their ability to coexist and reinforce one another. Across all regions, whether they rely heavily on cash, have advanced digital payment systems, or face the cash paradox of declining usage yet rising circulation, public money remains essential. It continues to serve as an anchor of trust, inclusion, and resilience.

A paper titled ‘Cash Demand and Demographic Changes in Japan’ by Hiroshi Fujiki of Chuo University, published recently by the Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, considers the impact of Japan’s rapidly ageing population and the increase of digital payments.

Perhaps it should be no surprise that the chairman of New Zealand’s (NZ) Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious & Organised Crime should say on a podcast that ‘Cash is the primary currency of organised crime. And so a huge amount of our cash right now, as we sit here, is in the hands of organised crime’.

A new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta seeks to understand whether, how and to what extent merchants in the US influence consumers’ payment choices1. Using the 2024 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, which recorded stated preferred payment methods and then actual choices at the point-of-sale (POS), the authors analysed why consumers sometimes deviate from their preferred option.