Deutsche Bank is to require from July any of its vendors with a contract over €500,000 a year to undertake a vendor sustainability rating assessment with EcoVadis, or another eligible rating agency.

There is a belief that banking can become purely digital. During the pandemic cash usage fell and we couldn’t visit bank branches. Banks were quick to close ATMs and branches, justifying this as customer choice.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey carried out its first ever Methods of Payment Survey in September/October 2020.

A Cash and Payments Sustainability Forum™ will be held in Edinburgh in the UK on 15-16 November. More information about the event can be found at cashandpaymentsustainabilityforum.com.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has published its diary of consumer payment choice based on its 2021 research.

The announcement by the UK government that it will legislate in the Financial Services and Markets bill to protect cash by ensuring continued access to withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK has led to a series of pieces in the UK’s media about cash.

A recent article by RBC demonstrated that in Canada the use of cash as a proportion of GDP decreased from 4.8% in 1961 to 2.9% in 1981. From then until about 2008/9 it held steady at about the 3% level. Since then it has risen steadily reaching 4.4% in 2021.

At a BIS event, the Central Bank of Chile announced that it is delaying its planned digital roll out to undertake further work on the benefits and risks.

The second CBDC Conference will take place 29-31 August 2022 in Frankfurt. The organiser is now publishing new speakers regularly on the conference website, www.cbdc-conference.com.

At the High Security Printing Latin America™ conference in March, Linda Rodríguez Casarrubias, Manager of Process Re-engineering and Development, presented the work being done by the Banco de México on sustainability.

The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act (ECASH) has been introduced in the US Congress by Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat and chair of the House Task Force on Financial Technology. The bill directs the US Treasury Department to conduct a pilot program for a version of digital dollars that work just like cash in that they would be stored on hardware, not in bank accounts.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents a range of US retailers, has written to the US Treasury Department asking for help to get the public to spend their accumulated coins. The retailers are facing a shortage of coins similar to early in the pandemic.

Carbon offsetting is a much talked about option but poorly understood. It may feel like ‘cheating’ or not delivering genuine benefits to reduce carbon emissions. This article looks at the why and how of carbon offsetting to answer these questions.

The National Bank of Denmark has issued an analysis paper looking at the use of cash in society. Denmark has one of the lowest levels of cash usage in Europe with only Norway and Sweden with lower levels. While the pandemic has reduced cash usage, there are clear signs that Danes still value cash.

In early June Currency Research will host its first in person Cash Cycle Seminar since COVID forced a postponement of the planned March 2020 event in Amsterdam. Taking place in Istanbul, the conference combines the previously separated Europe and MEA ICCOS events, with a focused agenda examining developments in the cash distribution and circulation sector.

The Dutch National Bank (DNB) has published its Payment Strategy 2022-2025. The strategy has three priorities; ensuring access to payments, maintaining a robust and reliable payment structure, and strengthening European and global payments, leveraging the Dutch experience.

Socash, the Singapore-based technology company with an app that connects consumers and merchants so that consumers can deposit, withdraw and make payments with cash at the point of sale in shops, has signed a definitive agreement to be bought by Nium.

Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK have enacted legislation requiring that their countries have net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement. Net zero is achieved when the amount of carbon dioxide we add to the environment is no more than the amount taken away.

The Bank of Canada runs two ‘Cash Alternative Surveys’ in April and August each year of a representative sample of 2,500–3,500 Canadians. It combines this with data from its Bank Note Distribution System to monitor the use of cash.

In preparation for a meeting of emerging market economy Deputy Governors organised by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the BIS surveyed 26 central banks and received papers relating to their CBDC work from 24 of them.