The New ICA Leadership – on Mission for Cash

Further to holding the inaugural Global Currency Forum in May last year, the International Currency Association (ICA) has recently issued a white paper on cash policy as part of its advocacy work, and welcomed a new Chair (Gianni Santoro of SICPA) and Vice Chair (Ruth Euling of De La Rue). Currency News™ heard from the pair about the forward plans for the ICA and where they will focus next.

Q: What objectives have the ICA set itself for the next months?

A: The current Board of the ICA was appointed in October 2021. We agreed to take on the leadership in October 2022, with a full year until the end of the current Board’s term.

Our mission now is to drive the Board and the association to complete the goals that were set out in October 2021, which are: to establish a very clear advocacy strategy to promote cash; to develop our own – successful – conference (the first Global Currency Forum conference took place in May 2022 and we are working on holding a second Global Currency Forum in 2024); to provide leadership on sustainability; and to focus on enhancing the value of membership.

In other words, very clear goals! We work towards these collectively with our fellow Board members and in very close dialogue with all members of the association. We have taken it upon ourselves together with the Director General of the ICA to talk to each and every single one of the ICA members to see how the ICA is performing against these goals and what the membership would like to see more of.

Q: How does the GCF support the goals of the ICA?

A: Our conference, the Global Currency Forum, has brought members together to organise an innovative and different approach for the industry and customers. The Global Currency Forum is unique in focussing on debate, thought leadership and original perspectives. Individual branding from the respective companies is kept to a bare minimum and it is a not-for-profit concept.

Room is given for all companies to promote their innovations in workshops that they organise individually and at the same time, we cooperate on presenting a non-commercial programme that speaks to the issues for the entire sector and the use of cash.

In this way, it really delivers the best of both worlds to the audience.

Q: What was the impetus for your recent whitepaper, and what has the reaction been?

A: Our White Paper on Cash Policy is our contribution to the discussion on what policymakers and central banks should do to make sure that cash can continue to perform its crucial role.

We present eight recommendations in our White Paper and the answers to the questions that we see being asked today about cash throughout the world, namely: 

• What needs to be done to ensure that cash is accepted everywhere?

• What is needed so that everyone can access - and deposit – cash easily?

• How can consumers be informed about the costs of payment?

• How can a sustainable cash cycle be promoted?

• How can we argue against the introduction of caps on the use of cash?

• And finally, how can we educate the next generation about the societal value of cash?

We hope that with our White Paper, we will be able to contribute even further to those discussions.

Q: What is the role of ICA in campaigning for cash? Who can it ‘reach’, ie. central banks, finance ministries, regulators, politicians, retailers, banks, the public?

A: We have found with our White Paper as well as with our Cash Matters campaign, which reaches a very broad audience of over 1 million followers on the social media channel Facebook alone, that we are reaching a very broad audience as an association, communicating our recommendations built on our expertise as an industry, as well as about the value of cash in general.

What we as an association find difficult is reaching consumers, ie. the actual users of cash, directly. That is why we have to join forces as companies and work together to identify how we can talk to the consumers directly. We are setting up a special taskforce to examine this with recommendations to share with our members by the end of the summer. A space for our members to watch!

Q: The currency industry centre of gravity is Europe; how can the ICA reach into the developing and emerging market economies?

A: Our industry customer base and reach is global. With the Global Currency Forum, we aim to have discussions with a global reach and bring participants from across the world together. We also work with our central bank partners throughout the world on issues of sustainability, on the basis of our ICA Sustainability Charter.

Our White Paper was drafted with a global audience in mind and one of the recommendations is a specific point about the need to embrace diversity in the development of payment landscapes. We caution against a simplistic approach that presumes that a society, overall, migrates from cash-heavy to electronic payments. Individual payment habits and conditions across the globe differ and there is no model trajectory that all societies will eventually follow; rather, we see different models for the local payment landscape across the globe.

In terms of policy discussions, there has been a particular focus on Europe as it is often perceived as the centre of gravity for political discussions. A lot of legislation that eventually ends up being of global reach originates in the European Union: think, for example, of EU chemicals legislation REACH, which has a global impact.

That is why we are particularly active at a European level, most recently for example regarding an EU-wide Cash Payment Limit: this is under discussion at the moment and was at risk to go as low as €1,000 EU-wide. Thanks to a broader discussion, in which the ICA and its members were very active advocates, the limit is likely to end up being somewhere between €7,000 and €10,000.

Q: Do you see a time when state printing works join the ICA, particularly those that produce banknotes for other countries?

A: Yes, absolutely. As per our articles of association, full members of the ICA must have a legitimate and established interest and business in currency – companies must be suppliers of currency, or suppliers of products, technologies and equipment used in the design, production, handling and circulation of currency.

Membership is open to legally incorporated companies and businesses. They must abide by our ICA code of conduct. All new memberships are approved by the Board of the ICA upon examination of evidence of these criteria.

The ICA is open to state printing works joining and having the conversation with us about the issues that are crucial to the future of the sector. We already have Note Printing Australia as a member since the beginning and the ICA members have elected the CEO of this company, our colleague Malcolm McDowell, to be a member of the Board.

So we are working together at that level on a daily basis and further state printworks are welcome to join the ICA in the future.