At the ICCOS Americas online conference there was, unusually, a coin panel, ‘Coin, coin everywhere and not a cent to spend.’ The focus was on what had happened to coins in the US in the pandemic, why a Coin Task Force had had to be set up and what the situation is now. The panel consisted of Kathleen Young from the Federal Reserve Cash Services Product Office, Ashley Yayock from Walmart, Thomas Strauser from Loomis, JR Davis from Davis Bankcorp and Linda Sherry from National Priorities Consumer Council.

YouGov have carried out a survey in 21 countries asking about payments in the pandemic, which provides an interesting snapshot on the relative impact of COVID-19 on cash usage around the world.

In its latest Quarterly Bulletin, the Bank of England published an article ‘Cash in the time of COVID’. The article seeks to explain what it referred to as the cash ‘paradox’, that cash in circulation is up while cash transaction volumes are down, which has been brought into sharp relief during the pandemic.

Allied Universal has offered 245 pence in cash for each G4S plc share and agreement on the terms of the offer have been reached. This values the company at £3.8 billion, representing a premium of about 68% to the closing price of G4S shares on 11 September 2020, and an 11% premium to the highest closing price in the previous year. GardaWorld had offered 235 pence per share, some 4% less. G4S Directors intend unanimously to recommend that their shareholders accept the offer.

Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are a less talked about element of the CBDC conversation, perceived as more operational than revolutionary. However, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has successfully concluded a proof-of-concept project with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and SIX to explore the performance of the technology to integrate a tokenised digital asset and central bank money.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published the results of a major study into the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE) and compared it with a similar 2016 study (the SUCH study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area). It also published results of another large scale interim 2020 survey, the impact of the pandemic on cash trends (IMPACT) survey.

Did much happen this year? A moment to reflect.

The Libra Association has rebranded itself as the Diem Association, its payment service operator will be called Diem Networks and its currency the Diem Dollar. Its Calibra blockchain group, responsible for the digital wallet that will hold the Diem Dollar, has already been renamed Novi.

On 15 December a new approach to branch banking started in the UK. OneBanks has partnered with the Co-op retailer to open a fully staffed kiosk in the shop. Although opening in December, it only goes fully live in January. The kiosk is opening in Denny, a Scottish town which has not had any banking facilities for over two years. It is estimated 40% of Scottish towns have one or fewer bank branches.

The Dutch National Bank (DNB) has commissioned a medium-term study to consider the cash infrastructure needed by the Netherlands. In October 2020 the DNB estimates that cash use at the point-of-sale had fallen to 20%.

OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute recently published a report on the Future of Payments. The report is a thorough examination of non-cash payment developments but two elements stood out. Firstly, a striking infographic showing the age profiles of four parts of the world and, secondly, more information on the growth, importance and impact of mobile payments.

The Bundesbank (BBk) provides 25.5% of the fully paid capital that underpins the European Central Bank (ECB), but it has brought into circulation 29.9% of the value of coins in circulation (€8.46 billion). This figure has been stable for some time.

Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, made a speech about the move to digital payments. Despite all the innovation of credit cards, ATMs, faster payments, open banking etc., he quoted Thomas Philippon, Professor of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business, who estimates that the unit cost of financial services has hardly changed over the last century.

Commercial banks are at the heart of the cash cycle and their branches have been their key customer touchpoint. If you read the news section on bank branches, you might think they are to become a side show for commercial banks. RBR held an online conference on branch transformation at the end of November. The move by customers online, using apps and telephone banking is accelerating a trend to slim down branch networks, and so this event was a useful insight into the future branch.

The UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported on the production and distribution of cash at the end of November. PAC was concerned that the cash distribution infrastructure is at risk, there is a lack of urgency in the response of the public bodies responsible with little action, a lack of clarity about the end goal and no realistic plan. Banknote stocks appear unnecessarily high without a clear explanation of why, and coin production appears unsustainable and not cost effective in the light of falling demand.

In January the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology team from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the US issued a comprehensive toolkit to help central banks develop their Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) policy by giving them a step by step process to follow, supported by detailed worksheets.

In the July edition of Cash and Payments News Paul Blond, Managing Partner of The Blond Group, wrote about the initial impact of COVID-19 in Australia and how not only cash, but all payment methods took a tumble as the widespread lockdown of the country impacted the economy. With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) publishing its latest data, Paul has taken a look at the numbers.

The global pandemic sadly forced the postponement of the Asia Cash Cycle Seminar (ICCOS) due to be held in Manila in September. However, this has allowed Currency Research to pivot to using virtual platforms for community engagement and education. Having recently and successfully run virtual events for Europe and Americas, the attention now falls to Asia.

Chris Skinner recently wrote in his blog, www.thefinanser.com, about the future role of bank branches. His story was based on two Brandseye surveys of consumer sentiment in the UK about banks, one pre-COVID and the other, more recently, ‘during’ COVID.

When disruption occurs and the past is no longer a reliable starting point and guide for the future, understanding the fundamentals is important. A recent paper published in CESIFO working papers (8574 2020) adds to our knowledge of household demand for cash.