Something strange is happening in the US. According to PYMNTS research, fewer US restaurants are accepting digital wallets as a form of payment. Between September 2021 and April 2022, the number fell from 81% to 73%. At the same time consumer confidence in wallets has been rising.

Innovation in the UK’s banking sector continues, with Barclays Bank announcing the introduction of semi-permanent banking pods. 10 will be established by summer 2023 following a successful trial.

The Dutch National Bank has carried out research into how people are coping with adapting to digital payments. Nearly 20% of those over 18 years old, 2.6 million, struggle with digital payments.

At the beginning of September, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revised cash withdrawal limits as part of its campaign to increase the use of electronic payments. Feedback on the limits has led it to update its original Circular.

The Fraunhofer Institute has been working on a project known as BASIC since January 2020, which aims to strengthen the resilience of the cash supply infrastructure in the event of an emergency or crisis.

The EU is introducing a new maximum limit of €10,000 on cash payments as part of a programme to stop money laundering. Individual countries are free to set their own lower limit.

The settlement of a class action lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard in Canada has allowed retailers to pass on credit card fees to their customers.

Deutsche Bank research analyst Marion Laboure has written a paper, ‘Future Payments: Towards the End of Cash?’ following on from her 2020 piece on the same subject.

Just as open banking is allowing OneBanx to offer shared bank branches, a UK start-up is using it to offer merchants and alternative to Visa and Mastercard’s debit card payments. Atoa Payments has raised $2.2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Just as the Federal Reserve is introducing new guidelines on card routing to increase competition, a campaign has started in the UK to get card fees reduced.