Central Banking

The rise of the polymer

Mr McGuire: "I just want to say one word to you - just one word." Benjamin: "Yes sir." Mr McGuire: "‘Plastics.'...There's a great future in plastics. Think about it."

Around the time cinemas were showing a young and impressionable Benjamin Braddock turn his mind to other pursuits in The Graduate, Australia's central bank embarked on a journey that would see plastic mount a challenge to paper 's thousand-year dominance of the banknote market.

The journey has been a long one. Soon after

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FedNow – at last

The instant payment system might help fix the US’s rusty payment rails, but it also faces competition, says Dave Birch

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