Access to and acceptance of cash remains a key issue

After 10 months of hard work, the final report of the working group on Access to and Acceptance of Cash has been welcomed by the European Retail Payment Bord (ERPB) of the European Central Bank.

Thanks the contributions made by AGE members under the leadership of our representative in that group, Anne-Sophie Parent, the challenges faced by older persons and issues of accessibility are adequately highlighted in the report and in the conclusions.

Also important to be noted that the ERPB will continue working on access to and acceptance of cash in the future to ensure that, in line with the Eurosystem Cash Strategy, cash will remain an inclusive, efficient, and sustainable means of payment for consumers alongside digital retail payments means. For instance, as a member of the ERPB, AGE will have the opportunity to participate in the investigation phase of the digital euro.

The investigation phase will aim to address key issues regarding the design and distribution of a digital euro. It will examine the use cases that a digital euro should serve as a matter of priority to meet its objectives, the possible features and functionalities of a digital euro, interactions with the European retail payments market, the business model for supervised intermediaries in the digital euro ecosystem and the technical solutions that could best handle these issues.

Read also:

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• AGE members warn against growing digital exclusion