Israel: Cash – The Point of No Return

Amir Safranovich, Head of Cash Management in the Currency Department at the Bank of Israel (BOI) introduced his presentation at the European Cash Cycle Seminar with the title ‘Cash: The Point of No Return’.

He went on to explain that in Israel this point has not yet been reached, even though it has been, or is close to being, reached in some countries. But he feared that it could happen soon in Israel, and if it did, it would be irreversible.

So currently the most important aspect of his job is to avoid this happening, which can only be achieved by managing the change to ‘less cash’ and not to ‘no cash’.

Israel has a population of 9.3 million and its banknote series has four notes – the 20, 50, 100 and 200 shekels (NIS). As in many other countries, Israel’s cash in circulation by value had been increasing, on average at the rate of 5% each year, until the end of 2019. But from March 2020, with the arrival of COVID-19, to October 2021 it increased by 36%.