Commercial banks are profit-seeking entities. Cost reduction to maximise profits and automation are core to achieving that. Bank branches and ATMs are expensive, hence the drive to close so many of them and, in the process, the ability to deposit and issue cash goes too. Merchants and the public are pushed towards going cashless, or at the very least, less-cash.

In a recent speech to the European Union Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Fabio Panetta, European Central Bank board member, said the ECB is looking at a new digital euro app with a basic payment function and creating a standardised way of connecting end users to intermediaries.

As noted in the December issue of Cash & Payment News™, the European Union has announced a set of new directives to limit the amount of cash and crypto transactions in a move, it says, that will crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Dutch National Bank has carried out research into how people are coping with adapting to digital payments. Nearly 20% of those over 18 years old, 2.6 million, struggle with digital payments.

Sveriges Riksbank has issued its 2022 Payments Report into the retail payments market. The report underlines the wide-ranging activities of the Riksbank to support the needs of all sectors of society when it comes to payment.

There will be very few organisations that can eliminate carbon emissions completely, and most organisations are going to take a number of years to get anywhere close.

Koenig and Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBNS) has signed a new partnership with the virtual ATM company SONECT as part of its strategy to help reinvent the way we move, access and manage cash in society.

Registration for the second Optical and Digital Document Security™ conference is now open, with a programme that demonstrates the importance of this event in bringing together people involved in developing digital systems for identity and financial transactions with the more traditional security document community.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has reported on its Study on the Payment Attitudes of Consumers in the Euro Area (SPACE) 2022.

The Fraunhofer Institute has been working on a project known as BASIC since January 2020, which aims to strengthen the resilience of the cash supply infrastructure in the event of an emergency or crisis.

The five countries who spend the most using mobile payments at the point of sale are China, America, the UK, France and Japan.

Italy is looking at possible compensatory measures to help retailers pay card fees following its change of heart on reducing cash limits.

The 2023 World Banknote Summit (WBS) takes place 20-22 February in Antwerp.

SICPA has entered into a strategic partnership with the INX Digital Company with the aim of helping governments develop innovative and sovereign Central Bank Digital Currency ecosystems.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has created an open access database of data relating to retail payment for 95 countries from September 2019 to June 2022.

The Dutch National Bank has issued a working paper considering the implications of moving to non-cash payment methods, if any.

At the beginning of September, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revised cash withdrawal limits as part of its campaign to increase the use of electronic payments. Feedback on the limits has led it to update its original Circular.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has written a report which, amongst other things, considers the privacy implications of Decentralised Finance (DeFi).

An important CBDC topic is its impact on a central bank’s ability to implement monetary policy. A technical paper by the BIS examines the possible impact of paying interest on CBDCs, or enabling CBDCs to compete with other payment methods in terms of convenience.

Cash Works… But It Could Work Even Better! This is the title of the Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions white paper on cash innovation & sustainability.