Safeguarding Cash: ICA Recommendations to Central Banks

The International Currency Association (ICA), representing the global currency sector, has published a Cash Policy White Paper, available on its website www.currencyassociation.org, which is summarised here. It wants policy makers to recognise that the benefits of cash to society may be lost without practical steps to protect the supply and acceptance of cash in society and promote its further development.

To achieve this, it has eight concrete recommendations:

• Ensure that retailers accept cash

The ICA wants the right of choice to be guaranteed by clearly mandating the obligatory acceptance of cash and stating that cash is legal tender. The ICA sees the continued use of cash as essential for protecting individual privacy. It is concerned that allowing card-only payment is potentially discriminatory to sections of the population that are not able to access e-payment cards.