In countries where less cash is already underway, there is an underlying assumption that it is only a matter of time before cash will reach a tipping point that makes digital payments a requirement. The unstated assumption is that cash will end, and that digital is the future. There is an urgency, therefore, to make digital payments work.

A recent webinar organised by Enryo, an independent consultancy, invited four experts to consider digital inclusion. Speakers addressed how to overcome the very real problem of proving identity and what needs to be done to accelerate digital inclusion.

A new agreement has been signed between the UK’s Post Office and 30 banks and building societies to allow customers to continue to access basic banking services in post offices.

The Beijing Winter Olympics has seen a third payment option be used at an Olympic Games for the first time since 1986 (when Visa got became the exclusive payment service provider alongside cash).

In 2020 Apple bought Mobeewave, a start-up working to enable contactless payments using smart phones. Bloomberg has reported that Apple will allow small businesses to use iPhones to accept payments ‘in the coming months’.

For the first time in two centuries, since the establishment of central banks began, the definition of money is being reviewed. In that context Paul Wilson’s book – ‘Shades of Sovereignty: Money and the Making of the State’ – is a useful read.

The CBDC Conference will take place in Frankfurt 29-31 August 2022. Registration is open and there is a super saver 25% discount rate for those who register by 30 April – www.cbdc-conference.com.

Cash Essentials recently ran the first in a series of ‘Cash Talks’ looking at access to cash with reports from AGE Platform Europe, the European Retail Payment Board (ERPB), the Dutch National Bank (DNB) and LINK.

While cash transactions in Japan have been declining for some time, albeit from a high base, the reduction in opportunities to pay in cash and the increased use of ‘stay at home consumption’ during the pandemic has accelerated this decline. At the same time the ratio of banknotes to GDP has risen very significantly.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs explanation if it is to be more than a buzz word. A recent article in the Asian Cash Management Association (ACMA) journal by Joep Van den Brink from PlanFocus Software threw some light on it in the context of cash management.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has published a paper on the growth potential and impact on banking of stablecoins. The paper explores what stablecoins are, their risks and their possible uses, including a look at the future.

The UK’s second parliamentary chamber, the House of Lords, has reviewed the work of the Bank of England and Her Majesty’s Treasury Taskforce that is working on the potential for introducing a retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the UK.

As the number of ATMs and use declines, authorities face challenges relating to competition policy and appropriate regulations. The Bank of Finland is no exception and has written about their experience and the extensive academic work done on this topic.

The Banque de France, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub have completed a cross-border wholesale CBDC experiment. Known as Project Jura, the experiment used tokenised assets on a distributed ledger (DLT) platform to settle cross-border transactions.

The Banknote & Currency Conference will take place, in person, on 21-24 February in Washington DC. Four weeks prior to the event, overall attendance matches the same stage prior to the 2019 Currency Conference, with particularly strong numbers of central banks and printworks.

Four recent stories about digital payment crime highlight the changing profile of financial crime from payment cards to cryptocurrencies.

Seigniorage income has long been a central bank source of finance which, if allowed to be retained, means central banks do not require direct funding from the government of the day in their country.

A CoinDesk columnist, J P Koning, has bravely made five predictions about the future of money.

The Bank of Canada wanted to understand the impact on cash withdrawals if people had to pay more to access cash. Staff working paper 202128 considers this question.

Fear of COVID-19 transmission by banknotes remains in Taiwan despite the worldwide research that demonstrates the risks are extremely small, no more than touching any other object in a public space.