WBS Lays Out a New Cash Future

The 2023 World Banknote Summit (WBS) took place in Antwerp and was structured around three key areas – the performance of cash in a crisis, the sustainability of cash and the future outlook of cash.

While there was a slight European bias, the topics, lessons and discussions had a global relevance.

Thoughts on a digital euro

The keynote address was delivered by Tim Hermans, Executive Director at the National Bank of Belgium. Much of his talk covered CBDCs, albeit in the context of digitisation in the Eurosystem.

Mr Hermans reiterated the point that for there to be confidence in digital commercial money, people need to know it can be moved back into physical money. He did not address the question about whether there is a tipping point below which the cash infrastructure becomes unviable. The need for universal digital roaming access as a pre-requisite for a digital life was touched on, but when and how that would be achieved was not discussed.