In many rural areas, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain cash. If there is no longer a bank branch or cash machine in the area, the only options are discount stores and supermarkets. In many shops, you can withdraw cash at the checkout using your debit card, but you are tied to opening hours and often have to make a minimum purchase. In addition, you can usually only withdraw up to £200.
Digitalisation is also contributing to a change in payment transactions. Most customers now make their payments online, and in supermarkets, more and more customers are scanning their own goods and paying cashlessly by card. Cash is becoming increasingly less important. It could even disappear altogether if security experts had their way.
But now the Deutsche Bundesbank is getting involved. It has launched the „National Cash Forum“. Associations representing the banking industry, retailers, consumer protection, cash-in-transit services, ATM operators and the Bundesbank are to work together to develop solutions to current cash issues. „The aim of the National Cash Forum is to maintain cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape,“ says Burkhard Balz, member of the Bundesbank's Executive Board and responsible for cash. „We are primarily driven by the question of the future availability and acceptance of cash,“ Balz continues.
While other European countries are much further ahead in abolishing cash, Germans are attached to their cash. And for good reason. Cash is and remains a piece of freedom. And it always works, even during power cuts and without a smartphone. In times of geopolitical uncertainty, cash is once again in demand. The Upper Austrian Civil Protection Agency, for example, recommends that each household keep 500 euros in small denominations on hand for emergencies. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance also recommends keeping cash on hand, but does not specify an amount. It has also published a useful guide for emergencies, which can be downloaded as a PDF file below.
The EU is now also working on a directive to secure cash supplies. According to the EU, banks will in future have to carry out an impact assessment of what closing a branch or removing an ATM would mean for cash supplies in the region. A bank will no longer be able to simply close a branch if it is the last bank in the area. The last one doesn't always turn off the lights! This is a positive signal from Brussels. Apparently, someone does care about how Grandma Meyer will be able to withdraw her pension in cash in future.
Further sources:
https://www.bundesbank.de/de/presse/pressenotizen/nationales-bargeldforum-gegruendet-924278
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/banken-filialen-schliessung-1.6006424
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/zahl-der-geldautomaten-sprengungen-bleibt-auf-hohem-niveau-102.html
Download the emergency guide:
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