Since digital payments and cash have similar environmental impacts, supporting one or the other is an unwise strategy to make payment systems more environmentally friendly. Indeed, tilting in one direction or the other can create an infrastructure imbalance that makes things worse.

The need to ensure that cash is maintained as a viable payment method is being advocated by civil society organizations, ordinary citizens, and—increasingly—by legislative bodies.

The importance of maintaining and supporting the cash infrastructure has never seemed more important than in the wake of this week's catastrophic IT outage.

Strict reliance on digital payments can make societies less resilient, highlighted by recent outages in March that forced some businesses to close shop and hit McDonald's and Tesco, among others.

European Consumer Protection Ministers, as well as those in Germany, recently highlighted the need to safeguard access to cash to protect consumers and ensure a resilient retail payment system.

The International Security Ligue (Ligue) has appointed Tanja Kulisch-Ziemens as of May 2024 as its new Secretary General for the Cash Chapter of the Ligue—a position that has recently been created to address the current disruptive challenges of the industry.

From Melbourne to Hyderabad, citizens are voicing objections to curtailing the freedom to pay in cash