Currency Conference: An Industry in Change – Part 1

The Currency Conference took part in Mexico City in May 2023, overlapping with the Digital Currency Conference. This report is the first of two summaries of the conference.

Conference themes

The Currency Conference shone an interesting light on the state and priorities of the banknote ‘industry’. The focus was not on so much on cash demand as the changing payment landscape and the impact that is having on cash, with sessions dedicated to cash and contingency in times of crisis, on access to cash – innovation, regulation and legislative developments, and whether Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are friends or foes.

Certainly, at the same time there were also more ‘traditional’ sessions on currency threat assessments, public education (but with the focus on how to use perception studies to fine tune new designs to ensure they work well) and innovation, and in addition workshops on the first day on design thinking, coin management, resilience (an IACA session) and state printing works.