The UN-facilitated Cash Working Group for Sudan, temporarily based in Nairobi, Kenya, is considering its options. While there will be a short-term requirement for food-aid, the bulk of the response is likely to involve cash transfers. But in what form?

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) 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 Bank of Korea is planning to introduce a QR code-based ATM deposit and withdrawal service this year. When this service is in place, users will be able to make deposits and cash withdrawals and this function will be possible irrespective of whether the ATM belongs to the customer's bank or not.

The Silk Road Cash & Payments conference, which took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan at the end of March, included a session looking at the future of cash, with presentations from the Bank of Israel, the Bundesbank and European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESRB).

The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a progress report on the digital euro. The ECB’s thinking is in development, with a final decision to be made at a future date. A notable element in the report is the work on how the digital euro may be made available and harmonised with existing payment systems.

In the last few years, the number of papers written about CDDCs has exploded as the world’s central banks rush to think about and investigate them. The Bank of Canada has carried out a literature review focusing in particular on the potential impact of introducing a CBDC on private banks, which it has published as a staff discussion paper.

The IMF has issued a working paper ‘Stacking up the Benefits Lessons from India’s Digital Journey.’ In it, the IMF describes the achievement of India in creating a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that delivers significant benefits.

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was established to build a unified pan-European payment system to rival Mastercard and Visa. Consumers and merchants would be able to use a card, digital wallet and make person-to-person payments. The idea was backed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and 31 banks joined the EPI.

The 2023 Future of Cash Conference takes place 6-8 November in Istanbul and will bring together all stakeholders of the cash community – central banks, financial institutions, retailers, cash management companies, technology providers and suppliers – to discuss new strategies to design the cash cycle of the future.

The latest Federal Reserve Payments Study shows an annual 6.2% increase in the number of card payments between 2018 and 2021. Behind that figure there are fluctuations, a fall in 2020 being offset by a rise in 2021, for example.

Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Director Financial Stability at the Bank of England, has spoken about innovation in payments and money, focusing on the impact and opportunities offered by tokenisation, including the future of cash.

Yuserisal Mohd Noor, Head of Automated Cash Centre at Bank Negara Malaysia presented at the recent Silk Road Cash & Payments conference on the Bank's project to fully automate its cash centre.

Anikó Bódi-Schubert and Ágnes Illés Belházy have provided a short summary of the content of the new Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) regulation on the processing and distribution of banknotes, its main motives and its expected impact on domestic cash payments.

The Riksbank has issued its phase 3 report on its work to understand how an e-krona might work. This phase investigated how the Riksbank could collaborate with existing payment service providers to allow access to the e-krona based on the existing collaborative approaches.

Although a snapshot of cash related crimes taken from media reports, they are a reminder of the risks of cash related crime used to justify less cash. In January Cash & Payment News™ reported that for the first time ever no bank branch in Denmark had experienced an attack, since they no longer handle cash.

Latvijas Bank reported that in February 2023 non-cash payments made up 67% of transactions with cash responsible for the rest. The average number of payments per person per week was at a historical high of 14.3, up from 12.8 a year earlier.

Three leading French banks have announced a plan to share ATM services, similar to what has happened in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany’s community bank group has argued that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) should only be brought into circulation by commercial banks who should be ‘appropriately compensated’ for it.

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.

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.