News | Cash & Payment News

John Winchcombe

30 June 2025

5 min read

Creating a New Financial Language for Financial Innovation and Competitiveness

Amnon Samid is a co-founder and leader of the interdisciplinary BitMint team that is working on Quantum-Resistant solutions for data, communication and money, including tokenisation, crypto, CBDC, stablecoins, lending, and any other value transfer and protect. He managed the first ever CBDC project that passed banking stress tests.

Cryptocurrency

Astrid Mitchell

27 May 2025

6 min read

Cash Awards Showcase Environmental Change

This year a Cash Sustainability workshop is being run alongside the High Security Printing (HSP) conference in Latin America. It makes sense, therefore, that a new Environmental Award is being announced at the conference, even though the award is open to any organisation anywhere.

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

4 min read

News in Brief

The latest US survey and diary of consumer payment choice compared October 2023 with October 2024.

News

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

3 min read

Pix: A Flag Bearer for Real Time Payments

Banco Central do Brasil launched Pix, its real-time payment (RTP) system, in November 2020. Pix has a sophisticated technological infrastructure that was developed and is operated, managed and regulated by the central bank.

Payments

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

5 min read

Payment News

The Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia – are reacting to risks to the payment system by working together on offline payments.

News

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

5 min read

Riksbank’s Priorities – Inclusion, Resilience, and Competition

Sveriges Riksbank (Riksbank) works to ensure that payments in Sweden are safe, efficient, and accessible. They need to function in peacetime, crisis, and states of heightened alert. The Riksbank publishes a payments report most years, although 2023 was an exception. The latest report describes and analyses developments in the payments market over the past year.

Payments

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

7 min read

Australia and the Future of Cash

In late February, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) gave evidence to the Economics Committee of the Australian Parliament. At the time, press reports interpreted her remarks as suggesting cash will be gone in ten years. Matt Sykes, of CPT group, has published his thoughts on the actual state of cash in Australia based on available data.

Access to Cash Free Free

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

2 min read

Catastrophe Challenges All Payment Methods

An article by David Birch has argued that cash should not be regarded as the catastrophe solution. Cash is a solution, but only for very short time frames. What is needed is the means for person-to-person (or actually, device-to-device) payments that work in the absence of mobile networks, electricity and clearing systems. For example, a device with the necessary secure microchip, or a bank smart card, allows you to pay in shops, or send money to a friend. This is how the Chinese digital currency works.

Resilience

Concha Jiminez

21 May 2025

2 min read

No Power, No Phone… No Panic, Cash is King!

On 28 April, Spain, Portugal, and parts of France experienced a widespread electrical outage that plunged about 55 million people into a pre-electric age. The blackout had significant impacts on digital payments and cash demand, highlighting the vulnerabilities of modern payment systems during infrastructure failures.

Resilience

John Winchcombe

21 May 2025

3 min read

Update on Access to Cash in Canada

In 2023, the Bank of Canada developed a travel-based measure of cash access. This quantified how far Canadians needed to travel to their nearest Automatic Banknote Machine (ABM) or financial institution (FI) branch. This study has been updated with the latest available data, 2023, and the opportunity has been taken to improve the data quality of the ABM data provided by Mastercard, such as duplicate records, missing ABMs and issues with ABM coordinates.

Access to Cash

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

CBDC News

As yet unsubstantiated rumours report that China is linking its digital renminbi cross- border payment system to the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and six Middle East jurisdictions.

CBDC

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

News in Brief

Auriga, which creates omnichannel banking software, has published a white paper on a net zero cash management strategy. The paper starts by raising the question of just how green digital payments actually are before going on to focus on cash.

News

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

4 min read

Establishing the Limits of Decentralised Money

In monetary exchange, holding money is evidence of past transactions of goods sold or services rendered. In effect, money can be seen as a record-keeping device. A monetary system needs a record of who has what and where it has moved.

Digital CN Studies, Reports

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

Payment News

A Centre for Economic Policy Research paper has focused on the need for central banks to be financially resilient.

Cards Cash Usage News

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

M-Pesa: Showing the Way at 18

This year Microsoft turns 50. Amazon is just over 30, Meta is 21 and the iPhone is just 18. Another organisation turning 18 this year, one that has had a major impact on payments, is M-Pesa. Payments:Unpacked recently ran an article from Jeremy Light’s Agenda:Payments newsletter2 celebrating M-Pesa’s milestone birthday.

Digital Payments Free Free

Guillaume Lepecq

28 April 2025

5 min read

OECD Highlights Need to Balance Digital Payments and Access to Cash

A new OECD paper highlights the importance of balancing digital innovation with the enduring need for cash. By adopting comprehensive policies and initiatives, governments can ensure that all segments of society have access to reliable and secure payment methods, fostering financial inclusion and stability in the digital age.

Future of Cash Studies, Reports

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

Gaming: a Microcosm of Payments

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has published an article on the evolution of video game payments infrastructure. As gaming has become big business, companies have changed how they monetise and distribute games to their customers, as well as adapted and evolved their payments infrastructure to support new revenue models. Changes in gaming payments represents a microcosm of what is happening in payments more broadly.

Digital Payments

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

2 min read

Updates on a Digital Pound

The Bank of England (BOE) is in the design phase of work on a digital pound (DP). As part of this phase, it is conducting experiments and proofs of concept in collaboration with private- sector innovators and a range of stakeholders.

CBDC Studies, Reports

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

2 min read

New Cash Environmental Resource Launched

Reconnaissance, working with Currency Publications, started a programme of sustainability-related projects at the end of 2021 with the publication of ‘Cash: A Roadmap to Sustainability’. Since then, we have continued a programme of work which has been made freely available in an effort to help reduce our industries environmental impact.

Sustainability

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

3 min read

Focusing on Banknote Sustainability in the Americas

A new survey of central banks and state printing works in Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean has identified their environmental priorities. 42% of countries in the region replied, and their answers have been used to shape the agenda for a day dedicated to a workshop on Cash Sustainability on Monday 9 June in Rio de Janeiro. The event is being held in conjunction with the International Currency Association.

Sustainability

Latest News

Creating a New Financial Language for Financial Innovation and Competitiveness

Cash Awards Showcase Environmental Change

News in Brief

Pix: A Flag Bearer for Real Time Payments

Payment News

Riksbank’s Priorities – Inclusion, Resilience, and Competition

Australia and the Future of Cash

Catastrophe Challenges All Payment Methods

No Power, No Phone… No Panic, Cash is King!

Update on Access to Cash in Canada

CBDC News

News in Brief

Establishing the Limits of Decentralised Money

Payment News

M-Pesa: Showing the Way at 18

OECD Highlights Need to Balance Digital Payments and Access to Cash

Gaming: a Microcosm of Payments

Updates on a Digital Pound

New Cash Environmental Resource Launched

Focusing on Banknote Sustainability in the Americas

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