The second payment methods survey of companies in Switzerland took place in Spring 2023, with 1,750 companies taking part.

The Federal Reserve has published a paper on what happens to international payments and the role of the dollar should a US Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) be issued.

The Federal Reserve has published its 2023 findings on consumer payment behaviour. Confusingly, this is based on the 2022 survey.

A study of the use of mobile money in Bangladesh gives a new perspective on how it differs from other payment methods.

The Dutch National Bank (DNB) has published a working paper detailing research on a transition from an economy without a CBDC to one with it.

A new CashEssentials paper addresses the questions ‘Is cash a public good?’ and ‘Is it a basic right?’ with the aim of clarifying the debate and advancing policy recommendations.

In a push to advance cashless transactions, four Czech banks are rolling out a novel solution that lets merchants skip traditional terminals while eliminating the need for customers to pay in cash.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has published an article in its Bulletin about cash usage. The article starts by explaining that transactional demand is hard to calculate and then goes on to use four different methods to establish a range of estimates.

This article provides summary of how payments are changing as technology changes and is adopted. Also, an update on AI ‘watermarking’.

A Bank of Canada staff paper gives useful insight into financial exclusion. It does this in the context of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), but the findings have broad relevance to payments generally.

Dr Franklin Noll, a payments specialist who works as a Lead at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has posted in LinkedIn an interesting piece on financial / payment inclusion. He has expressed his own opinions, not those of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The European Union has developed plans to reduce money laundering. This includes a limit on cash payments of €10,000 (versus €3,000 as previously proposed).

A new version of the famous Monopoly board game has been created, ‘Monopoly Voice Banking’, that has replaced paper cash with a voice-activated banker.

A technical article by Manuel Muñoz and Oscar Soons, unusually, considers the role of CBDCs as a store of value instrument for consumers.

Why would JPMorgan Chase spend billions of dollars expanding its branch network while in the UK every retail bank is closing bank branches? Why would the Bank of Ireland invest heavily in new ATMs and refurbished branches while the UK looks at hubs and pods to serve their customers?

2024 has kicked off with a focus on cash, particularly a series of initiatives to safeguard access to cash.

On 30 June 2022, Italy introduced a law fining merchants €30, plus 4% of the transaction value, if they did not accept a card payment. This law, along with vigorous promotion of card payments, has led Italy to having some of the highest rates of card accepting merchants per million inhabitants in Europe.

The CBDC conference returns to Istanbul 10-12 September.

India’s economy has, like most countries, been buffeted by unexpected shocks over the last few years. Cash was disrupted by the November 2016 demonetisation exercise and by the pandemic.

ATM Marketplace has identified three key areas for innovation for ATMs in 2024 – use of AI, video banking, and cash automation.