Impacts of Recent Developments on the Cash Cycle: A Global Analysis

Even though innovations in digital payments have accelerated in recent decades, cash is the only payment option for a number of citizens in every country. Moreover, the great majority of people would like to keep cash as one of their payment options even in those countries where its share in transactions is already small. Cash is also used for precautionary reasons as well as a store of value and has a significant role in various crises and uncertainties.

In order to continue to be a safe haven in the future, cash infrastructure should be maintained and developed in line with the changing environment. Only a structure that functions in normal circumstances can be used in a crisis. Therefore, with good reasons, there is a debate in several countries about the status of the cash infrastructure.

Recent discussions have mainly focused on the access to and acceptance and affordability of cash, and new useful indicators have been created to measure these.