On Friday, the National Cash Forum was established in Berlin on the initiative of the Deutsche Bundesbank. The associations of the banking industry, retail trade, consumer protection, the CIT industry, vending machine operators and the Bundesbank will jointly develop solutions to current cash management issues. The objective of the National Cash Forum is to preserve cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape, said Burkhard Balz, the Bundesbank Executive Board member responsible for cash and Chair of the National Cash Forum. 

The Bundesbank is the largest issuer of euro banknotes in the Eurosystem and, together with many stakeholders, ensures the supply of cash in Germany. Given the large number of stakeholders involved, I believe that a regular dialogue on cash makes sense. The future availability of cash and its acceptance is one of the main questions on our minds, Balz said. He added that the cash forum would also study the topics of efficiency, sustainability, security and digitalisation. Emergency and crisis preparedness as well as cross-border cooperation in the field of cash would also be important topics. 

Although the use of cash at the point of sale is declining, 93% of respondents to a representative survey as part of the Bundesbank’s latest study “Cash of the future” indicated that they would prefer to decide for themselves whether to pay in cash or not. In the new forum, we can lend a strong voice to cash and help make it easy and safe for the public to pay with banknotes and coins, Balz said. 

The forum is scheduled to meet at least once a year in a plenary session. The next meeting is scheduled for autumn. The expert work will take place in working groups which will create the basis for discussions, recommended actions and decisions within the forum.