Framing the Narrative for the Future of Cash

The Future of Cash conference typically attracts some 120 participants from central and commercial banks, CIT and cash management companies, academics and other cash cycle stakeholders. The 2023 event takes place 6-8 November in Istanbul, and the full agenda is now available.

The agenda begins with a half day research seminar on 6 November entitled ‘Is Cash a Public Good? Is Cash a Basic Right?’ Run by CashEssentials, it will bring together academics and central banks to debate whether the role of cash should be redefined and if, so, the implications for the cash cycle.

On 7 November, the opening session on ‘Setting the Scene’ will hear from Berk Yücel Balkizof of the Central Bank of Türkiye on the challenges of the Turkish cash cycle, from Kathleen Young of the Federal Reserve on doing things differently in a decade of change, and from Oliver Strube of the ECB on the ECB Cash 2030 Strategy.

The next session will focus on understanding the cash paradox, with presentations from Antti Heinonen, Magyar Nemzeti Bank and Monnaie de Paris.

The afternoon will comprise a series of round table conversations, in which participants will deploy their collective intelligence to discuss some of the key challenges and opportunities facing the future of cash. These include access to cash, acceptance of cash, redesigning the cash cycle, CashTech and innovation, cash & CBDC, cash and crises, the environmental sustainability of cash, how to fund the cash cycle, and data management.

Concluding the first day will be a session on the Cash Cycle in a Digital World, with case studies from Pakistan, South Africa, the eurozone and the UK.

The second day starts with a session on Redesigning the Cash Cycle, with presentations from the Royal Canadian Mint (the role of circulating coins), De Nederlandsche Bank (cash system redesign in the Netherlands), Bantas (the multi-bank cash services management model), and the Bundesbank (cash of the future).

Resilience is the topic of the next session, with presentations from the Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security, Garanti BBBV and disaster management consultant James Shepherd Barron.

The renowned monetary anthropologist Brett Scott will then lead a workshop entitled ‘The Best Defence is Offence: Pioneering a Cash Narrative to Defeat Cashless Propaganda’. Against a background of the digital payments industry dominating the narrative about the future of money, it will be an opportunity for participants to brainstorm framings, arguments and slogans in support of cash that will catch the imagination of the public.

The remainder of the programme is dedicated to CashTech and innovation, concluding with the presentation of the CashTech Innovation 2023 awards.

www.thefutureofcash.com