Let’s talk about Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the UK’s Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage and cash. Cash, of course, being a key part of the payment system driving economic activity around the world.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has published its second guide to creating a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This edition focuses on a security and resilience framework to guide central banks through the critical task of creating a safe CBDC.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, ‘big data’ and ChatGPT have now reached the public consciousness in a big way, hence headlines such as ‘Central Bank of Ireland blocks ChatGPT for staff as financial services firms grapple with AI’ and ‘China’s Central Bank Warns Against ChatGPT ‘Data Leaks’.

Planning for the third euro series is underway. The Theme Advisory Group has issued a shortlist of six themes following an internal voting procedure.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has surveyed 86 central banks and found over half are conducting concrete experiments or piloting CBDCs.

The Currency Conference took part in Mexico City in May 2023. Two sessions were particularly relevant, an overview of cash today and work to ensure cash is resilient.

At the Currency Conference in May 54 members of the International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) met to discuss how to build a resilient cash infrastructure, a highly topical subject.

The European Money and Finance Forum has recently published a useful paper on big data and machine learning in central banks.

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank is to scrap over-the-counter cash withdrawals at new cashless bank branches. Cash will still be available at ATMs.

The media rejoices in either claiming the metaverse is dead in the water or that it is booming. Wherever it falls, payments are made in the metaverse, it is a global marketplace and there is the opportunity to do things differently.

In 2019 the Central Bank of Kenya demonetised the KES 1,000 banknote. It has issued a comprehensive report on its experience that offers interesting lessons for any central bank planning such an exercise.

Following industry wide consultation at the end of 2022, the Australian Federal Government has published its Strategic Plan for the future of Australia’s payments system setting out a number of policy objectives and priorities. The plan outlines the government’s commitment to ensuring that the country’s payments system is safe, affordable, trusted and will remain readily accessible.

Many countries are facing falling cash demand, which is causing problems in the cash cycle. This report, by Paul Blond of the Blond Group LLP, shows the compromises having to be made in Australia as a result.

Bruegel, a Brussels based European think tank, has published a paper considering the value added by CBDC in the context of the euro area.

The Future of Cash conference takes place in Istanbul 6-8 November, with the early booking delegate fee ending on 15 September.

With the publication of the IMF paper ‘Measurement and Use of Cash by Half the World’s Population’, and the Cash Essentials rebuttal, a new paper about demand forecasting by the Banca d’Italia is timely and adds to the discussion.

Account-to-account payments (A2A) have been talked about for some time. There is some evidence that they are beginning to fulfil their promise. The latest 2023 Worldpay Global Payments Report from FIS says there are now 64 real-time payment schemes in operation providing high-speed payment rails for A2A payments.

The Federalist Society in the US has published a useful, and brief, summary of where key economies are in their CBDC thinking.

The Dutch Finance Minister has proposed legislation to ensure the provision of cash facilities, at least to a basic level. The legislation builds on the results of a PwC study on the future structure of the system for banknote and coin deposits and withdrawals for consumers and retailers.

The Bank for International Settlements has published ‘A Handbook for Offline Payments with Central Bank Digital Currencies’.