Cash remains king: OENB demands legal obligation to accept!

Cash remains king: OENB demands legal obligation to accept!

The discussion about the future of cash in Europe is becoming increasingly important. In Austria, the Austrian National Bank (OENB) calls for urgent legal regulations to accept cash. The OENB director Eduard Schock emphasizes the need for such measures in order to continue to maintain the wish of the population for cash in the future. 94 percent of Austrians are currently using cash, but there is a worrying trend: the rejection of cash payments grows, of 6 percent of business that did not accept cash in 2020, to 9 percent last year.

The OENB sees this development as a threat to consumers' freedom of choice. In order to secure cash supply in Austria, an agreement with the Austrian Association and Banks was made to ensure ATM locations. The equipment of up to 120 locations with ATMs is planned to ensure access to cash. If this is not sufficient, additional regulatory measures can be considered.

cash as a legal means of payment

As part of the recent initiatives of the European Commission, the cash in the euro danger area is strengthened as a legal means of payment. From now on, a national authority will be set up to deal intensively with the topic of cash. The Commission has also made proposals to secure access to cash. This is done in the context of the increasing use of digital payment methods, which was accelerated by the Covid 19 pandemic.

A survey shows that 60 percent of those surveyed want to hold on cash while using digital means of payment continues to increase. The Commission is planning two essential packages of measures: On the one hand, a legislative proposal to ensure acceptance and accessibility of cash and on the other hand a draft law that is supposed to create a legal framework for the introduction of a digital euro that should complement and not replace cash.

the digital euro

The preservation of data protection, especially in offline payments, is intensively discussed to ensure that fewer personal data must be disclosed. In order to secure the currency sovereignty of the EU in an increasingly digitized world, the introduction of a digital euro appears as a decisive step.

The initiative of the OENB and the proposals of the European Commission clarify that cash and digital currencies should coexist in the future. While cash should continue to play a central role in payment transactions, a clear framework for the integration of digital payments is also created. kosmo.at and The European Commission examine the different facets of this debate and show the urgent requirements for the future on.