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.

The agenda of the Optical and Digital Document Security (ODDS) conference reflects increasing interest in getting cash to interact with smartphones and other devices. Four papers consider new approaches in this area.

Finance.ua, a Ukrainian financial media organisation, posted cash usage rates for Europe in 2019 based on Statista data and then compared it with a smaller selection of countries in 2020 and then 2021.

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.

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.

A recent post highlighted how misleading the constant stream of headlines about a cashless society is. Going cashless makes for wonderfully shocking, attention-grabbing headlines.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) conducted a survey of 2,000 companies in the summer of 2021, representative of every industrial sector and region of Switzerland.

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.

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

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.

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

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.