A new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta seeks to understand whether, how and to what extent merchants in the US influence consumers’ payment choices1. Using the 2024 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, which recorded stated preferred payment methods and then actual choices at the point-of-sale (POS), the authors analysed why consumers sometimes deviate from their preferred option.

Perhaps it should be no surprise that the chairman of New Zealand’s (NZ) Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious & Organised Crime should say on a podcast that ‘Cash is the primary currency of organised crime. And so a huge amount of our cash right now, as we sit here, is in the hands of organised crime’.

A paper titled ‘Cash Demand and Demographic Changes in Japan’ by Hiroshi Fujiki of Chuo University, published recently by the Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, considers the impact of Japan’s rapidly ageing population and the increase of digital payments.

The CB+DC Conference, which focuses on digital currencies and payments, will hold two events in 2026, one in Kuala Lumpur hosted at Sasana Kijang, the Bank Negara Malaysia’s training facility, 12–14 May and one in Amsterdam 27–29 October. Registration is now open.

A new Deutsche Bundesbank study, ‘The cost of payment methods in the retail sector accessible’, analyses both monetary costs – fees, charges, equipment and transport costs – and non-monetary costs – the time spent by retailers using payment instruments at the point of sale or for administrative expenses.

At the Future of Cash conference in Warsaw last November, there were a number of presentations and conversations about ATM business models and interchange fees.

At the end of last year, the Eurosystem Research Network on Cash (EURECA) held a workshop at the European Central Bank (ECB) to consider the latest currency research.

The Rwanda Bankers’ Association (RBA) has considered lessons to be learnt from the implementations of CBDC in the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria.

A Bank of Canada Staff Discussion Paper calculates the marginal cost of an electronic funds transfer (EFT) to be about C$0.55 per transaction ($0.4) and the total fixed cost of running an EFT to be C$83 million per year ($60.23 million).

Data from LINK, in the UK, shows that compared to 2024 ATM transaction volumes were 1.27 billion (down 8.3%) and withdrawal values were £76.67billion (down 4.2%). The average ATM withdrawal value in 2025 was £92.11.

Cash management is changing as cash moves from being a core business for commercial banks and retailers to being a cost centre. Today’s cash management companies (CMC), such as Loomis, are changing their ‘offer’ to that of ‘cash-as-a-service’ rather than just offering traditional cash-in-transit (CIT) cash services.

In 2025 Nigeria suffered from severe cash shortages. In response a special committee was established, chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso. The committee undertook a holistic and comprehensive end-to-end review of the entire cash lifecycle: from production, to transportation, to distribution, and eventual access by consumers.

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.