News in Brief

Access to Cash a Political Issue in Austria

Austria is looking at including the right to use cash in its constitution. A task force is looking at putting the right to pay with physical money and to guarantee access to ATMs. Austria’s Chancellor has made the statement that ‘people in Austria have a right to cash.’ 

Cash is widely used in Austria and one of the political parties, the Freedom Party, has campaigned in support of cash. The Freedom Party strongly opposes the concept of a Digital Euro.

Another political party, the Socialist Party, has suggested banks should be required to install ATMs, at their own expense, in response to a complaint from a mayor about the cost of maintaining an ATM in his remote village. Austria already has some of the best access to cash in the European Union.