Effective, Efficient, Sustainable and Resilient

In many countries the COVID-19 pandemic has seen cash in circulation reach record levels, yet, with diminished economic activity and a push towards ‘contactless’ payments, transactional cash use has continued to decline. As a result, many central banks around the world are actively reviewing their country’s cash infrastructure and are busy considering whether their mechanisms for the distribution of cash remain effective, efficient, sustainable, and resilient.

In the UK, the Bank of England has recently issued an update on 18 months of work by its Wholesale Distribution Steering Group (WDSG), made up of key industry stakeholders from across the cash supply chain, which is considering the future state of the UK’s wholesale cash distribution system.

On the other side of the world, both the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) are in the midst of consultations to determine similar issues in their countries.