The Dutch National Bank (DNB) studied how an external shock, the COVID-19 pandemic, affected payments in the Netherlands, using an extensive payment diary that ran from January 2018 to October 2020.

On 26 January the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave its judgement on the Hessischer Rundfunk case.

This is the title of a new Cash Essentials paper. The paper considers the role cash plays in economic and social life, the challenges it faces and how innovation is improving the efficiency of the cash cycle. The paper includes the line, ‘the capacity for cash to change will be integral to its continuing success’, and it goes on to explore what the future holds.

The Dhaka Tribune reports that between March and the end of November 2020, the number of Cash Recycling Machines (CRMs) increased from 266 to 684 in an attempt to make branches less crowded and to lower costs since less cash loading and replenishment of ATMs is needed, along with reduced cash movements, sorting and handling.

A recent working paper entitled ‘Institutional Hostility to Cash and COVID-19’ by economists Doris Neuberger of Germany’s University of Rostock and Eduardo Beretta from the Swiss Institute of Economics examines how the pandemic has boosted commercial incentives and government policies to nudge consumers away from cash.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) monitors payments closely. During 2020 there were some interesting variations that HKMA will track in 2021. The priority for 2021 will be to monitor and understand what is happening across a range of indicators so that HKMA can manage the appropriate supply of banknotes.

LINK, the UK’s main cash machine operator, reported a 37% drop in the number of ATM cash withdrawals in 2020, a significant fall. But that is still £1.6 billion withdrawn each week - £1,500 for each adult. With nearly 8% fewer free-to-use ATMs and nearly 18% fewer pay-to-use machines, these figures are even more impressive. John Howells, CEO of LINK, the UK’s largest cash machine network, made the point that ‘the sharp decline in ATM use brings significant problems (the) drop in transactions places enormous strain on the cash infrastructure’.

Payments in their many guises are essential to the way we all live our lives, to buy bread and milk, to heat or homes and to do many other things. Around the world the majority of people take payments for granted and are able to choose the payment option that suits their needs for the particular transaction. However, many people don’t have this choice and have to rely on a single payment method, and this is very often cash.

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) received 65 responses to its latest Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) survey of which 21 were from Advanced Economies (AE) and 44 from Emerging Market/Developing Economies (EMDE). The results are published in BIS Papers 114, authored by Codruta Boar and Andreas Wehrli.

Mastercard has announced that the interchange fee on products bought online in the EU by British card holders will increase from 0.3% to 1.5%. Debit card fees will increase from 0.2% to 1.15%. This fee increase is justified because now the UK is no longer part of the EU, fees will be charged at the ‘inter-regional’ fee level rather than ‘intra-regional’ fee level.

January’s edition of Cash & Payment News™ covered NCR’s bid for Cardtronics. NCR – which describes itself as ‘a technology provider for the financial, retail and hospitality industries’ – has now announced that it has entered into a definitive acquisition agreement to buy the company, paying $39 per share, valuing Cardtronics at $2.5 billion. NCR justifies this in its statement as accelerating its shift to ‘NCR-as-a-Service’ strategy, moving its mix of revenues across its business more to software, services and recurring revenue.

If Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) do not solve a real problem, then they will fail. In a recent paper by Peter Bofinger and Thomas Haas, Professor for Monetary Policy and International Economics and Research Associate and Chair for Monetary Policy and International Economics respectively at the University of Wurzbürg, they throw doubt on whether central banks have found a compelling need for CBDCs.

On 1 January 2021, a new law came into effect in Sweden intended to secure access to cash and payment services.

Cardtronics runs 285,000 ATMs in 10 countries, making it the world’s largest operator of non-bank cash machines. This Houston based company is a major player in the cash industry but is now being pursued by two companies, firstly Apollo Global Management and Hudson Executive Capital and secondly NCR.

In April 2020 Harro Boven and Peter Wieters published a Dutch National Bank (DNB) Occasional Study on the objectives, pre-conditions and design choices for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Harro wrote an abridged version that was used in Payers’ December publication about CBDCs which is summarised here.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is keen that EU member states engage with the public policy debate around Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for the eurozone. In this context, it is reported that the Italian Banking Association is starting a technical feasibility study into using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for a future ‘digital euro’.

Doris Schneeberger, Head of the Currency Management Division at the European Central Bank (ECB), spoke at December’s RBR conference giving the Eurosystem perspective on trends and developments in the use of cash.

Bantas is a Turkish based cash in transit (CIT) joint venture between three Turkish commercial banks. With about 1,600 staff, it looks after 48 cash centres, servicing 9,000 ATMs, 2,700 bank branches and 3,300 shops using 425 armoured trucks.

Marie-Hélène Felt wrote the Bank of Canada’s Staff Working Paper 2020-56 'Losing Contact: The Impact of Contactless Payments on Cash Usage'.

In the UK a company called BitcoinPoint has acted to make owning and using bitcoins easier. They are collaborating with the independent ATM operator Cashzone, who run 16,000 ATMs across the UK.