Banknotes
Canadian cash volumes rose in pandemic
BoC says increase driven by stockpiles of big notes and interruptions in circulation
UK public has ‘reasonable’ access to cash, regulators say
But pandemic made it difficult for people to access and pay with cash, new research finds
The ‘golden age’ of central banking has passed
Central banks face multi-faceted challenges and weakened autonomy amid highly polarised inflation expectations
Libyan governors meet as UN tries to broker reunification
Audit will recommend ways to end division of central bank caused by civil war, reports say
Somalia’s governor on rebuilding its central bank
Governor Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi discusses reviving Somalia’s war-damaged economy, re-creating a payments system, and dealing with remittances
Lithuania’s central bank bolsters cash services
Central bank signs agreement with banking sector to maintain minimum level of cash provision
Communications often involved at early stages of central bank policy
Most central banks say comms teams are involved in early planning stage of policy decisions
Fintech communication is most challenging for central banks
Central banks view fintech as greatest challenge, but rate monetary policy communication highly
BoE completes transition to polymer
New £50 banknote featuring scientist Alan Turing enters circulation
El Salvador’s bitcoin currency experiment
Move by first nation to approve bitcoin as legal tender raises important issues
DNB study finds Dutch expect to carry on using cash
Although payments are increasingly carried out by electronic means, citizens continue carrying cash
A chemical engineer walks into a bank
Mónica Fernandes, head of the quality and counterfeit analysis division at the Bank of Portugal, explains why it is just as important for central banks to employ scientists as to employ economists
Malawi picks G+D for currency processing contract
German-based firm already provides processing services to the Federal Reserve
Are we entering the polymer age?
CCL Secure explores the security and anti-counterfeit benefits of polymer banknote technology. As this developing technology reveals its advantages over traditional paper-based banknotes, could we soon see a shift in the status quo in polymer’s favour?
Cash infrastructure as public good – implications for the cash cycle
Efforts are under way in the Eurosystem to safeguard cash infrastructure as a ‘public good’ even as transaction volumes have fallen significantly. How can policy-makers strike the right balance?
The importance of diversity when selecting banknote icons
The former head of currency at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Brian Lang, explains why inclusion and diversity were such important factors for the country’s 1992–93 banknote redesign
The evolving ‘strategy function’ in central banks
Some institutions participating in a survey of 27 central banks still struggle to fully harness an effective ‘strategy function’, according to the ECB’s Jean-Charles Sevet and Alejandro de la Cuesta
Mexican 100-peso note wins international award
Banknote depicting seventeeth-century nun and poet wins International Bank Note Society accolade
BoE to close cash distribution centre in 2023
Cash operations will continue at Debden site while BoE reviews geographical footprint
Riksbank to open two contingency cash offices
Offices will be opened this year and next to guard against disruptions to cash supply
Central Banking Awards 2021: winners in full
Winners in 2021 include the Federal Reserve, Alejandro Díaz de León and Charles Goodhart
Central Bank of Barbados’s first governor dies
Blackman helped to introduce dollar peg and pioneered transparency
Central Banking Awards 2021: third round of winners revealed
Awards go to central banks and market practitioners for payments, market infrastructure and currency
Currency initiative: The ECB and US Federal Reserve’s CDI2 standards
The issuers of the world’s two most international currencies have created an important new technical standard to support more efficient cash management