A Bank of Italy paper has pointed out there is a link between permissionless blockchains, the most common settlement infrastructures in the crypto ecosystem, and the volatility of the prices of crypto-assets and the availability and security of these infrastructures.

The Danish physicist, Niel Bohrs, said, ‘prediction is very difficult, particularly if it’s about the future’. Few would argue with him, however, here we go… What will be the big themes in 2026 when it comes to cash and payments? Herewith an eclectic mix of suggestions.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan has taken to LinkedIn to report progress on the Digital Tenge and to state that it is open to collaboration on CBDCs, programmable payments and what it refers to as GovTech. The Digital Tenge is already live, and it is providing a working programmable finance system that’s already part of the country’s financial infrastructure.

Norges Bank has assessed whether introducing a CBDC is appropriate to ensure that paying with the Norwegian krone will remain secure, efficient and attractive.

Currency Research (CR) hosted its annual Americas Cash Cycle Seminar earlier this month in Miami, returning to South Florida after an eight-year absence. The 2025 edition welcomed 214 delegates from 99 organisations – including 35 central and commercial banks – from 36 countries, making it the best-attended Americas Seminar in more than a decade, according to CR.

G+D has bought the Payments & Banking Services business of Bank-Verlag, which processes 25% of card and internet payment transactions in Germany.

An IMF paper examines stablecoins’ potential benefits and risks while surveying emerging international regulatory frameworks.

Bazil Sansom, a Research Fellow at Warwick Business School, has written a useful summary of the UK’s stablecoin challenge for Finextra. Over the last few weeks, both the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England (the Bank) have spoken about the future of money in the UK in a number of forums. A new stablecoin consultation has also just been opened.

Nigeria’s federal government has banned the use of physical cash for revenue payments and directed all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to deploy point-of-sale terminals within 45 days, as part of a sweeping shift toward full electronic revenue collection.

The South African payments processor PayInc, formerly BankservAfrica, now has South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as a 50% shareholder, alongside leading commercial banks – Absa, Access Bank, African Bank, Capitec, Citibank SA, FirstRand, Investec, Nedbank and Standard Bank.

A World Bank blog looks at fast payment systems (FPS) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) based on a new World Bank report that analyses data on FPS across 11 LAC countries. It found that the introduction of digital wallets has simplified the process and reduced the cost of transferring money in LAC. However, friction remains due to siloed payment infrastructures and uncompetitive markets.

Reviewing the year shows that the arguments for and examples of the value of cash have piled up this year and come into sharper relief. At the same time, our progress in turning that into a new cash era remains limited. Concurrently, the landscape for new digital payments has got more complicated and big issues remain to be resolved. So we end the year with many positives and much to do.

At the Future of Cash conference in October, Roel van Anholt from the Dutch National Bank (DNB) explained the steps taken to strengthen cash resilience.

BRANCHH Consulting and Outsourcing has commissioned a Payments Preferences Survey for Jamaica which lays bare where the country is in its transition from analogue (cash) to digital payments.

In Pakistan, cash is more than a currency. It is a culture, convenience, and continuity which is woven deep into the nation’s economic identity. From the crowded street vendors in Karachi to elaborate wedding ceremonies in rural Punjab, the tangible crinkle of banknotes remains king. While much of the world surges towards digital transactions, Pakistan walks a slower, more tentative path.

At the recent Asia Cash Management Association meeting at the Asia Cash Cycle conference in Bali, Scott Forster of the CPT Group presented on the systemic resilience and fragility of the cash infrastructure. For cash to survive, the cash infrastructure must be sustainable and viable.

Scott Hamilton has written a useful summary in Finextra of the possible impact of stablecoins on transactions, particularly cross-border1. While adoption is rising fast, the future is not yet secure.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has formed a task force to explore adoption of stablecoins. It is doing this in the context of the eNaira, which is proving unpopular.

Mastercard has held an ‘African Edge Summit’ to accelerate Africa’s digital payments. The event focused on building infrastructure, and interoperability with a focus on consumers and small businesses with representatives from banks, fintech companies, telcos, regulators and technology partners.

Reuter has reported that Visa and Mastercard have agreed a $38 billion settlement with US retailers over interchange fees by agreeing to cut interchange fees, which typically average 2-2.5% per transaction, by a tenth of a percentage point over several years.