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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) conference has now moved wholly online on 4-6 October 2021. Registration is now open.

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.

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

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’.

Finextra has published an article highlighting different visions for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, made a speech that said it was ‘probable’ that the ‘state will need to issue, public money’.

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.

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.

Augustin Carstens, General Manager at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), made a speech at the end of March considering progress with CBDCs. He explained how the simpler payment process with CBDCs reduced risks, costs and time while addressing the weaknesses of today’s payment system - high credit card and cross border payment fees, a lack of universal access to digital payment tools and weak governance frameworks on big tech and other providers’ use of transaction data.

Financial inclusion is a hot topic as the move to online and mobile banking leads to fewer bank branches. When banks announce closure plans they quote how many customers now interact over the phone, internet or smartphone and the number of people registering new mobile phone apps (in the case of HSBC, 90% and 750,000 respectively in the last 12 months).

A recent article by the Dutch National Bank (DNB) explained that, as a consequence of the pandemic, its intake of banknotes has fallen to the extent that it is now issuing more euro banknotes than it is getting back in, a first since it started issuing them. The number of notes issued fell by 10% in 2020 but the number of notes received fell by more, by 25%.

The European Association for Secure Transactions (EAST) has issued its 2020 report on ATM crime. EAST collects data from 21 Western European countries operating about 335,000 ATMs, 223,000 unattended payment terminals and 14.5 million point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

With Sweden’s decline in cash usage, Sveriges Riksbank is less involved in the payment system and is, therefore, less able to meet the requirement placed on it to promote a safe and efficient payment system. As a result, the Riksbank is conducting a pilot project to create a token-based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) known as the e-krona.