At the Coin Conference in Lisbon Martina Horakova, Managing Director, International Mint Industry Association (IMIA), presented European Economic Area legislations and proposals ‘in favour’ of cash access and acceptance.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has published the results of its consultation on a possible CBDC. The consultation had the highest response rate of any RBNZ survey, with more than 500 individuals and groups writing in, as well as 18,000 online survey responses.

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.

Programmable payments are often talked about in the context of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), but they are possible with any digital payment. The Federal Reserve of Atlanta has written a useful blog explaining them.

Access to cash has become a key area of interest for central banks. The Bank of Canada has compared subjective perceptions of cash accessibility with distance based metrics and published their findings in a staff analytical note.

The Bank of England (BOE) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Digital Currency Initiative (MIT DCI) have published a paper exploring privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for a possible digital pound.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is half-way through its assessment work about whether to launch a CBDC. This has involved extensive consultation. It has published its second progress report on its preparation phase of a digital euro.

Mobile money transactions in Kenya surged to KSh6.5 trillion in the first nine months of 2024, reflecting a 13.2% growth compared to KSh5.8 trillion during the same period last year.

Bank Indonesia (BI) has published a paper on a technical proof of concept (PoC) for a wholesale CBDC (wCBDC). BI had compared R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain and Ethereum-based Hyperledger Besu, but the report did not make a definitive choice at this stage.

The European Commission is preparing to introduce new rules on cash payments in order to fight against money laundering.

Russia’s Ministry of Industry wants a two year transition before mandatory adoption of a digital ruble. It is concerned that the necessary infrastructure is not ready. It is currently planned to become mandatory for large retailers by July 2025.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has written a paper investigating who is underserved when it comes to digital payments, the starting point for working out how to include them in today’s digital economy.

While the revolution in information and communication technology, the emergence of China as a global manufacturing exporter, and the expansion of global value chains in the 1980s started a new phase of globalisation, the relatively recent rise in e-commerce and direct-to-customer sales, facilitated by online retail platforms, is leading to a new feature of international trade, namely an increase in the number of low-value transactions.

At the 2024 Association for Financial Professionals national conference in the US treasurers from Starbucks, Staples and Inspire Brands (who run a number of US restaurant chains) explained the benefits of using smart safes for cash management.

At the ATMIA Europe & Emerging Markets conference in October Thierry Lebeaux, Secretary General of the European Security Transport Association (ESTA) presented about the impact of less cash in the euro area on the cash in transit industry. Dr Rüdiger Voss also presented on the European Commission Euro protection and euro cash.

Pascal Wicht, Strategic Designer at SICPA, presented at October’s ATMIA conference on the social role of cash, particularly for Gen Z. This work forms part of the International Currency Associations (ICA) programme of understanding and advocating for cash by going beyond the pure retail and payment functions of cash.

Matt Sykes of The CPT Group has published an interesting article on LinkedIn. While it discusses recent changes, and possible changes, to the Australian cash system, the article raises questions for all.

In September Franz Seitz and Gerhard Rösl published a paper laying out the challenges and risks faced by cash in countries moving to being less cash societies. It is a tour de force providing both facts and arguments about what can be done. It provides the context and the arguments for the future of cash discussions heard at every conference this autumn – ATMIA, Coin, Retail Branch Transformation, High Security Print.

At the Digital Currency Conference, the Bank of Israel (BOI) laid out its CBDC approach starting with looking at the rapid growth of digital payments as a proportion of all payments across the world. Cash may be holding up in absolute numbers but relative to the total, it is falling fast.

The Digital Currency Conference took place in London in September this year, starting with a workshop focused on the Digital Pound. This spent time trying to establish the use cases that make a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) a necessity so that it is actually used. This is a recurring topic currently as central banks work through whether to introduce a CBDC.

The Deputy Governor of Norges Bank, Pal Longva, has said that Norway has ‘no urgency’ around its digital currency initiatives. Norway has completed four stages of CBDC investigation. It is now concentrating on applications of wholesale CBDCs in a fifth phase of work to be completed by the end of 2025.

The Datos Retail Branch Transformation Europe event in London brought together the full cross section of organisations involved in cash management, including central and commercial banks, cash management and cash in transit companies, machines and software suppliers, think tanks and more, in the context of creating the retail bank branches fit for today’s reality.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic and there are a number of conferences focusing on how central banks could, and should, be using it. Jelena Stapf, Head of Division Branch operations, IT Applications and Automation, Bundesbank (BBk), presented how the BBk’s cash demand is using it at the ATMIA conference.

The US regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), wants to extend its regulatory scrutiny to include tech giants such as Apple and Google and their digital payment apps and wallets.

A Norges Bank survey estimates only 3% of consumers pay with cash, although more would do so if shops would accept cash. Norges Bank and the government have recently added an amendment to the Central Bank Act that clarifies consumers’ right to pay with cash up to an amount of 20,000 kroner.

Domestic ATM cash withdrawals are subject to interchange fees, which are designed to compensate ATM deployers for operational costs. These fees have remained largely unchanged for years, in spite of rising operational costs. This divergence poses a threat to the sustainability of ATM networks.

To pick out a small number of presentations, NCR Atleos and Brinks talked about the trend to outsource ATM services and management. Tietoevcy focused on a different type of outsourcing, ATM pooling using Bankomat in Sweden and Geldmaat in the Netherlands as examples, and the Eika Alliance in Norway presented their pooling operations and approach to banking.

SICPA recently issued its 2023 Sustainability Report. Following the publication of its first Corporate Social Responsibility report in 2013, this report details its systematic approach across the whole spectrum of ESG activities.

A staff working paper by the Bank of Canada seeks to understand what would be possible if Canadians made more mobile payments.

As we are aware, the use of cash is most certainly not being promoted with the same vigour that the use of electronic or mobile payments has been in recent media and advertising.

The Bank of Canada is stepping back from a implementation of a CBDC.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) carried out its latest survey on the acceptance of cash at selected companies in Spring 2024 and has now published its findings. The good news is that cash continues to be strongly supported. The less good news is that there is early evidence of change.

Two articles about innovation. One about types of company that innovate. The second asking us to think radically about how to leverage coming technology.

Mobile banking allows people to manage financial services via their smartphones. No wonder it is the fastest growing banking channel, with big implications for traditional options such as bank branches.

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is a Europe-wide bank-backed venture set up to build a European rival to Mastercard and Visa.

Thailand is planning to give citizens with a certain level of income and savings a financial boost by transferring funds to them through a digital wallet.

The International Mint Industry Association (IMIA) has seven European mints as full members and seven associate members. It has recently issued a brief that argues for pro-active policies to safeguard cash payments to ensure European crisis resilience. Although some of the arguments are European specific, the broad thesis has wider relevance.

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.

The Bank of England’s 2023/24 report outlines significant activities related to banknotes, payments and digital currency. Banknote value and volume in circulation was flat but net seigniorage income was up 153%. The Bank continues to make progress on its net zero carbon goals.

An article about the challenges of public transport digital ticketing lays out the general problems of going digital.

Currency Research has launched the AI Bootcamp, facilitated by The Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, which will explore AI tools and strategies for revolutionising supervisory innovation, with practical insights and a tailored roadmap for AI adoption.

The Cash Cycle Seminars (ICCOS) are annual events from Currency Research (CR) that bring global knowledge to regional markets in the Americas, Asia, and EMEA.

The ‘Privacy Paradox’ is where people claim more concern with privacy than their actual behaviour indicates. This ‘say-do gap’ exists in many areas, including the need for cash to be maintained, but despite that, it means organisations are forced to respond.

Those who oppose CBDC use a range of arguments. One is a general argument that fiat money allows governments to expand the money supply at will, removing the constraint on government to pursue ‘sound money’.

The fifth edition of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024 was held 28-30 August in Mumbai. It focused on the ‘Blueprint for the Next Decade of Finance: Responsible AI, Inclusive, Resilient’. The GFF is organised by the Payments Council of India (PCI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC).

A recent article in Forbes makes the case for Self-Sovereign Decentralised Identity to be used to address privacy issues with CBDCs.

In June and September 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided support to the Banco Central de la República Dominicana (BCRD) to explore CBDC.

The UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal has rejected an appeal by Visa and Mastercard against a class action that claimed that businesses that received payments by commercial cards paid fees much higher than they should have been, causing them significant losses.

A recent blog by Sam Bobeov and Fintech Wrap on Payment : Unpacked asked who gets left behind in a cashless world.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a paper considering the security of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). While there are frequent papers covering CBDCs and design features affecting privacy, financial inclusion, and the impact on monetary policy, it is rare for security to be covered. The paper lays out why and how a CBDC is different from existing digital payments and reviews the risks they face.

McKinsey’s has published a list of the top 15 tech trends to follow. Chris Skinner, an independent commentator on the financial markets and an author, highlighted this recently in his blog, TheFinanser.com.

The World Economic Forum has recently published an article describing Colombia’s work to create Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), a key element of which is interoperable digital payments.

At the recent Cash Sustainability Forum in Frankfurt, Cash InfraPro presented on the challenges and opportunities of making the cash supply chain work well.

As a worldwide partner to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa has a monopoly on all debit, credit and mobile payments. Spectators are venting their frustration. Paradoxically, the campaign demonstrates the importance of cash in terms of inclusion, protection of privacy and resilience.

The CBDC Conference takes place 10- 12 September in Istanbul. One recently announced element of the agenda is a Governor’s panel chaired by John Ho, Standard Chartered.

Sweden’s Riksbank has started to look at the climate impact of adopting a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

Tobias Adrian, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, spoke at the International Symposium on Central Bank Independence in Stockholm at the start of the year. His topic was maintaining central bank independence alongside the development of payments and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

The Bank of England (BoE) has published its approach to innovation in money and payments, proposing a programme to test infrastructure that supports the settlement of central bank money against digital assets such as stablecoins, tokenised deposits and other innovations. The Bank has published previous papers on the regulation of stablecoins, innovations by deposit-takers and CBDCs.

David Birch has written about the presentation made by Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, at the Swiss National Bank’s event ‘Towards the future of the monetary system’. In it she described two waves of benefits from tokenisation. In the short term it will bring greater efficiency to the existing payment and settlement system. In the longer term she sees radical change to post-trade processes.

In the face of US and European Commission regulatory pressure, Apple is enabling iPhones to make contactless payments to third party providers. It will though, charge associated fees.

Mastercard’s President of Global Enterprise Growth, Raghu Malhotra, gave his views on Digital Payment Regulations in Asia recently to Asia Business Outlook. His starting point was to argue for harmonised regulations in order to increase cross-border transactions and financial inclusion. If there can be a seamless operation across four countries versus a single country, the economics will differ and benefit the end consumer and merchants.

In June, the Mint Director’s Association held a webinar focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool and how it can be implemented to improve productivity. While coins were the focus of the talk, the theme applies to all currency and business in general. The webinar was hosted by Mr Aditya Berlia – an entrepreneur, educator, and AI advocate – and sponsored by Carveco.

Revolut has recently received a UK banking licence. It has 9 million UK customers, 45 million globally. It has now announced that those customers can deposit cash into their accounts.

The Bank of Canada has issued a staff discussion paper considering the role of retail public money at a time when new technology and new participants, some non-financial firms, are entering the process of money creation.

August is one of those months where much of the world slows down, particularly in the northern hemisphere, creating an opportunity for a more reflective piece. As a result, this edition spends some time looking to the future.

The European Central Bank’s Product Environmental Footprint study found that 82% of the environmental impact of banknotes happened post-issue. In addition, all around the world cash usage is changing. Stakeholders are having to rethink how cash is organised.

The Bank for International Settlements has published a report stating that central banks should be using Artificial Intelligence to improve their analytical tools.

The Cash Sustainability Forum, which took place in Frankfurt last month, concluded with a panel discussion exploring who should lead and drive environmental change in the cash area.

A study commissioned by the Polish Cashless Foundation has reported that nearly half of respondents to a survey withdrew cash from store registers. Threequarters were aware this was possible.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has published a working paper examining the relationship between innovation, economic growth and informal activities. This is based on data from 101 economies from 2014-2019.

At the recent Cash Sustainability Forum, held in Frankfurt last month, Ian Woolford, Head of Money and Cash at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, gave a presentation on the country’s impending community cash services trial.

Both the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) are working on wholesale CBDC infrastructure.

The full programme for the CBDC Conference 2024, which takes place 10-12 September in Istanbul, has now been published. The event brings together central bankers, industry experts, thought leaders, academia and policymakers to explore the world of digital currency, including CBDC, tokenised deposits, and stablecoins.

Currency Research is launching its inaugural Central Bank Artificial Intelligence (CBAI) conference in London 25-26 September. The CBAI follows on directly from the Digital Currency Conference (DCC) which takes place at the same venue 23-24 September, in what the organisers are terming Payments, Innovation and Technology Week.

In this new periodic series, we will cover in brief the news and information in various countries’ central bank annual reports as they relate to cash and payments, starting off with Ireland, Rwanda and Bhutan.

The last time Currency News™ (sister publication of Cash, Payment & CBDC News™), published its Directory of Currency & Technology Suppliers was 2018. The industry has changed a great deal since then with companies coming and going. The 2024 edition has now been published and is available to purchase in either a PDF or printed format.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a working paper looking at ensuring that a digital euro does not impact financial stability or the transmission of monetary policy.

A paper by two academics from King’s Business School and the University of Liverpool and by a central banker from the Bundesbank explores the complexity around disintermediation, modelling different outcomes.

The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is to enter a developmental phase for a CBDC for payment settlement with local and international banks.

The 2024 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice in the US found payment transactions increasing 46 per month (up seven) but cash use stable (seven per month), and therefore falling as a share of payments. Cash held as a store of value and as a backup payment instrument remained ahead of 2020 numbers.

The third DENARIA Conference took place in Madrid on 24 April, hosted by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP). The focus was on financial inclusion, and how cash can ensure a fair, inclusive and secure digital transition, particularly in a country where cash continues to be the main payment method for a very significant number of citizens.

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) is 20 years old this year. At the Banknote Conference in Fort Worth, Texas last month it held a session on ‘Cash Visibility and Collaboration’, which was a full house with nearly 120 people attending. Even with 77 member organisations drawn from central banks and suppliers, this turnout was exceptional.

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.

There have been a series of press reports about cash over the last few weeks. Put them together and a story emerges of what a society going cashless looks like.

It appears that payment stakeholders in the US and UK are seeking to pass laws and take legal action to address a perceived lack of competition in the digital payment arena. In the last few weeks, there have been a series of reports detailing legislative, regulatory and court developments in this area.

Visa has laid out its payment plans for the future. The focus is on making payments personalised for the individual user, convenient and secure.

A recent McKinsey survey in Latin America found that the number of people who said cash was their preferred payment method had halved between 2021 and 2023.

The ECB has published a blog ‘Making the digital euro truly private’, with privacy an important concern for CBDCs. A strong focus on privacy will never convince sceptics and the realities of know your customer and anti-terror funding legislation have to be accommodated.

It is unclear whether the public and merchants will use a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make a payment. The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a paper that explores this based on survey payment data and using a quantitative framework that estimates CBDC demand based on individuals’ preferences for the attributes of different payment options.

The latest Bank for International Settlements report shows research into wholesale CBDC overtaking that of retail CBDCs.

The payments landscape continues to shift as digital innovation introduces and shapes new customer offerings. In line with this, we all recognise that how we are using cash is evolving – but it is clear that cash is here to stay and remains an important part of the payments mix for end consumers.

The Bank of Canada carries out regular Methods of Payment surveys to measure payment method adoption, use at the point of sale and perceptions about payment methods. This helps the Bank with its management of banknotes and understanding of digital currencies and may help with its work on a possible CBDC.

Sweden’s Riksbank, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), the Central Bank of Uruguay and the Federal Reserve all provided information on cash use in their economies at the recent Banknote Conference in Fort Worth, TX.

For Europe, the key piece of environmental legislation is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The European Commission estimates 50,000 companies around the world will be affected, with the first companies having to apply the new rules from as early as 2025, for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024.

The CBDC Conference take place from 10-12 September in Istanbul. The conference organiser has now published the first tranche of confirmed speakers, 15 of whom are from central banks, as well as the International Monetary Fund.

A forum is a meeting where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged, and that is the aim of the Cash Sustainability Forum, providing the opportunity for all stakeholders involved in cash to meet, share, understand and learn.

The Swiss National Bank, with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Swiss innovation hub, is running project Helvetia III, the world’s first issuance of a wholesale CBDC on a regulated third party platform to settle commercial transactions with tokenised assets.

Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, has spoken about a discussion paper to be issued in summer 2024 on tokenised money. It will include feedback on the paper in its work on stablecoin regulation and a possible retail CBDC.

In February A$9.5 billion was withdrawn from ATMs in Australia. This figure is being used by campaigners to argue that it is Australia’s banks, rather than Australia’s people, who are driving cash out.

A few days after celebrating its 90th anniversary, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shakti Kant Das has announced several new payment initiatives.

Apple has responded to an antitrust case brought in 2022 in Europe. It is offering to allow iPhone users to make contactless payments using third-party providers.

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

For Europe, the key piece of environmental legislation is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The European Commission estimates 50,000 companies around the world will be affected, with the first companies having to apply the new rules from as early as 2025, for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024.

The Bank of Canada (BOC) carries out regular Methods of Payment (MOP) surveys to measure payment method adoption, use at the point of sale (POS) and perceptions about payment methods. This helps the BOC with its management of banknotes and understanding of digital currencies and may help with its work on a possible Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

It appears that Vermont is the latest US state to consider introducing legislation to force cash acceptance.

Franklin Noll of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has written a payment systems research briefing note on what can be learnt from the experience of retail CBDCs (rCBDC) in the Caribbean.

Defining the right privacy level for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a critical decision when designing a CBDC. The Bank of Canada has published a Staff Working Paper that focuses on the needs of businesses and considers the options.

The rise of cashless payments has raised the concern that some consumers will be induced to spend beyond their means. As monthly income is spent over the course of a month, if consumers are aware of their reducing balance, they are likely to constrain their spending. The Swiss National Bank has published a paper that explores differences in how freely people spend between people who pay in cash and digitally and how their awareness of their balances affects their cash management.

The authors of a new European Central Bank (ECB) working paper have used data from the ECB’s Consumer Expectations Surveys (CES) to study cashless payments in everyday situations and the use of mobile banking apps in the euro area.

Sweden’s Riksbank has issued its latest CBDC phase review. This fourth phase built on a previous phase that trialled offline token-based payments to explore an offline e-Krona based on account balances.

Digital-only financial inclusion (DoFI) can increase convenience for financially included people, and lead to cost savings for providers of financial services. On the back of this, today digital payments are promoted by governments and digital payment companies alike as a solution to financial inclusion for all. A recently published paper examines the dangers of DoFI.

Payment technology has had a bad time in the UK recently. Four major firms have had IT issues that hit contactless payments– two food outlets (McDonalds and Greggs), two supermarkets (Sainsbury’s and Tesco).

This is an abridged version of an NCR Atleos article written about ATM network options that financial institutions (FIs) have if they don’t have the reach of the largest institutions. It explores the pros and cons of either joining a shared network or signing up with an independent ATM network.

BANTAS is a joint subsidiary of three commercial banks, and the leading cash services provider in Turkey. It has about 1,800 employees, 46 cash centres with 490 armoured vehicles across the country. It is the sole provider in Northern Cyprus.

The end of the ‘cash era’, announced by The Economist 15 years ago, has not arrived. On the contrary, in a contactless but crisis-ridden world, cash is leaving wallets and taking refuge in mattresses. This article from Marc Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of Monnaie de Paris, was first published by Cash Essentials.

The European Central Bank has started to make the case for a digital euro. The central bank's Programme Director Digital Euro recently noted that a digital euro, while complementing cash, would strengthen Europe’s strategic sovereignty by reducing dependence on non-European payment providers and offer another form of trusted and secure transactions for people in Europe.

Innovation in contactless payment technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, increased e-commerce, and enhanced transparency, security, and convenience have transformed the retail payment markets in the last few years.

A new CashEssentials paper addresses the questions ‘Is cash a public good?’ and ‘Is it a basic right?’ with the aim of clarifying the debate and advancing policy recommendations.

This year, the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) is concentrating on cash visibility and collaboration.

The first afternoon of the second Cash Sustainability Forum (CSF), which takes place in Frankfurt from 24-26 June this year, will be a workshop dedicated to the recycling and recirculation of cash. It will build on a white paper currently being researched and prepared, and for which input is still very welcome.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBNS) will host a dedicated event to bring the international central bank community together around the future role cash will play in society.

The ability of private citizens to execute electronic transactions using a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), central bank money, introduces new monetary stability challenges. A paper by Harald Uhlig from the University of Chicago considers this. The paper is highly theoretical but raises the sort of questions central banks have to get right in their planning for a CBDC.

A study of the use of mobile money in Bangladesh gives a new perspective on how it differs from other payment methods.

The second payment methods survey of companies in Switzerland took place in Spring 2023, with 1,750 companies taking part.

The Federal Reserve has published a paper on what happens to international payments and the role of the dollar should a US Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) be issued.

The Federal Reserve has published its 2023 findings on consumer payment behaviour. Confusingly, this is based on the 2022 survey.

The Dutch National Bank (DNB) has published a working paper detailing research on a transition from an economy without a CBDC to one with it.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has published an article in its Bulletin about cash usage. The article starts by explaining that transactional demand is hard to calculate and then goes on to use four different methods to establish a range of estimates.

In a push to advance cashless transactions, four Czech banks are rolling out a novel solution that lets merchants skip traditional terminals while eliminating the need for customers to pay in cash.

This article provides summary of how payments are changing as technology changes and is adopted. Also, an update on AI ‘watermarking’.

The CBDC conference returns to Istanbul 10-12 September.

A Bank of Canada staff paper gives useful insight into financial exclusion. It does this in the context of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), but the findings have broad relevance to payments generally.

On 30 June 2022, Italy introduced a law fining merchants €30, plus 4% of the transaction value, if they did not accept a card payment. This law, along with vigorous promotion of card payments, has led Italy to having some of the highest rates of card accepting merchants per million inhabitants in Europe.

Why would JPMorgan Chase spend billions of dollars expanding its branch network while in the UK every retail bank is closing bank branches? Why would the Bank of Ireland invest heavily in new ATMs and refurbished branches while the UK looks at hubs and pods to serve their customers?

A technical article by Manuel Muñoz and Oscar Soons, unusually, considers the role of CBDCs as a store of value instrument for consumers.

A new version of the famous Monopoly board game has been created, ‘Monopoly Voice Banking’, that has replaced paper cash with a voice-activated banker.

The European Union has developed plans to reduce money laundering. This includes a limit on cash payments of €10,000 (versus €3,000 as previously proposed).

2024 has kicked off with a focus on cash, particularly a series of initiatives to safeguard access to cash.

Dr Franklin Noll, a payments specialist who works as a Lead at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has posted in LinkedIn an interesting piece on financial / payment inclusion. He has expressed his own opinions, not those of the Federal Reserve Bank.

ATM Marketplace has identified three key areas for innovation for ATMs in 2024 – use of AI, video banking, and cash automation.

India’s economy has, like most countries, been buffeted by unexpected shocks over the last few years. Cash was disrupted by the November 2016 demonetisation exercise and by the pandemic.

The ECB is looking to sign five agreements worth about €1.1 billion for a four year pilot of a Digital Euro starting early 2025.

A Barbadian bank announced that it will introduce fees from 1 February.

Even China isn’t immune from ‘less cash’. One bank, ICBC, has taken action in Taizhou in Jiangsu to remind people about the requirement for merchants to accept cash in its branches.

However you want to cut it, NCR Atleos (Atleos) is big in all thing’s ATMs. Data as of 23 June 2023, used in its September 2023 investor day, showed that it had over 800,000 installed ATMs.

In 2023 we continued to cover cash, payments and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This article provides a swift summary of the year that was.

Cash & Payment News™ (CPN) was first published in July 2018 as the successor to Payment News Quarterly. While Currency News™ focuses on the product that is ‘cash’, CPN has concentrated on the use of cash once issued.

Whether you agree with Henry Ford, ‘History is bunk’, or George Santayana, ‘Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, a paper from the Department of Economic History at Uppsala University gives an interesting perspective on the risks of introducing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

An International Monetary Fund paper uses data from Uganda to understand whether digital payment innovations, particularly mobile money payments, will increase financial inclusion and if it will reduce people’s preference for cash.

Leon Schumacher, from Digital Ekho, gave the opening talk at the AI & CB (Artificial Intelligence and Central Bank) online conference in December. For those new to AI, it provided a fast overview of what AI is and some of the issues connected to it.