This November, COP26, the UN climate change conference, will take place in Glasgow. Cash & Payment News™ and its sister paper Currency News™ have started work on a paper, ‘Cash: a Roadmap to Sustainability’, ahead of the conference.

Central banks making statements about investigating or working on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) this month include Bank Indonesia, the Bank of Korea (pilot June 2021-January 2022), Bank of Mauritius, the South Africa Reserve Bank (retail CBDC), and the Bank of Thailand.

A survey carried out in February 2021 by the Dutch National Bank (DNB Cash) contained some good news for cash. In five years’ time over 70% of all age groups expect still to be using cash.

In 2019 National Westminster Bank (NatWest) commissioned independent academic research to look into the drivers of consumer payment behaviour, including consumer attitudes and intentions towards cash. The research was carried out by Professor Darren Duxbury, Dr Thanos Verousis and by David Marsh. This is a short summary of their work with the full research being published in due course.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued its first Sustainability Report for 2020/21. The report has a section dedicated to reducing emissions related to currency operations. MAS has identified four areas of focus to reduce its currency related emissions.

In 2015 Russia set up a national payments card network called Mir. It was set up with government backing after MasterCard and Visa cut off services to a number of the country’s banks following the annexation of the Crimea.

In 2020 the number of ATMs fell slightly according to RBR who are about to publish their ‘Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2026’ report. In fact, 2020 was a mixed year where the long-term growth in ATM installations slowed rather than stopped.

Central banks making statements about investigating or working on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) this month include Brazil, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Norway, Pakistan and Russia.

YouGov have issued their 2021 Global Banking and Finance Report, having surveyed 1,000 people in 17 countries representing a nationally representative sample with three exceptions. These were China, where sampling was ‘online representative’, India ‘nationally urban representative’ and Mexico, which was nationally representative but with an urban bias. Six Asian countries were involved – Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Singapore.

Card fees are complicated. CMSPI have issued a useful paper looking at Germany’s payment market and what has happened since 2015. The Merchant Service Charge (MSC), what merchants pay to receive a payment from their customer, consists of three elements, as below.

A recent article in Kenya’s Star newspaper looked at why the informal transport system of ‘matatus’ (privately owned cars or minibuses acting as shared taxis) does not make use of M-Pesa wholeheartedly. It suggests two reasons.

Levent Kocbiyik presented at the Cash Cycle Seminar (ICCOS) last year on behalf of the Turkish cash management company Bantas about achieving the right mix of technology in cash handling. He argues that ‘craft’ continues to play a core role as well.

Digital is hard. Digital is remote. Money matters and financial matters are not trivial. Are banks sure, therefore, that widespread branch closures are wise?

After several months of a COVID-enforced digital only publication of Cash & Payment News™, we are happy to announce the resumption of the hard-copy distribution of the newsletter from June. Thank you for your patience during the disruption and we ask for a little more forbearance as delivery services attempt to return to something like their pre-COVID levels.

Deutsche Bank has announced that it will close 150 bank and Postbank branches this year and a further 50 Postbank branches next year. The CEO said that customers are coming to branches less often, preferring to use digital products such as remote advisory video sessions. In January Commerzbank announced it would close 340 branches in Germany.

Following the success of the Future of Cash online event in February 2021, the organisers – AGIS Consulting and CashEssentials – are continuing the conversation and providing a coherent story of today’s cash challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities. The next virtual event – taking place 6-7 July – will focus specifically on the Asia-Pacific region. The physical event is still on track to go ahead on the 9-10 November, in Madrid, Spain.

Without coins you cannot receive change when you pay with a banknote. Although banknotes receive most attention in the cash cycle, April’s MDC webinar reminded people why that is a mistake.

The UK’s Post Office is not a bank and does not aspire to be one. However, it does provide essential cash services on behalf of all banks to all communities left behind when banks close. The banks still have a duty to be available for more complex products – typically now served through call centres, or video calls.

The term ‘programmable money’ is increasingly bandied about in articles, but what is it? It is largely considered in the context of B2B transactions. Perhaps a few simplistic examples of how it might work best illustrate why it is becoming a ‘thing’.

Three reports bring insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on payments in the US.