Part 1: Interview with ICA Director General Frane Maroević Cash: What would the end of banknotes, bills and coins mean for the skilled trades?

This is Part 1 of an interview originally conducted by handwerk magazin with Frane Maroević, Director General of the International Currency Association (ICA). Republished here by Cash Matters, it explores why the decline of cash use is not a “natural” trend but driven by powerful industry interests, how access to banknotes is being curtailed, and why cash continues to provide unique advantages that digital payments cannot replace.

How do you assess the decline in the use of cash?
Frane Maroević: The increase of digital payments is undisputed. What is decisive is what follows from it. A one-sided reduction of cash weakens failure resilience – that is, redundancy: a second, analogue system when digital fails, hinders participation and narrows data sovereignty.

Is the decline of cash payments “natural”?
The image of a “natural” decline is misleading. Behind the push for cashless payments stands a powerful digital payments industry. It wants to reduce the use of cash and gain control over the payment systems. And that has consequences for fees, data and market rules. As soon as market control is achieved, these companies can dictate the conditions. Not without reason did the three largest digital payment systems alone report profits of nearly 30 billion US dollars in 2024.

The development is in large part the result of targeted strategies of large payment providers. They are usually based abroad and have a purely commercial interest in pushing cash out of everyday life. They offer subsidised terminals, carry out lobbying for legal changes and at the same time reduce access to cash. Whoever ignores these connections overlooks the core: Cash does not become “less by itself”, but it is systematically pushed back.

How can the digital payments industry reduce access to cash?
That happens less through individual instruments than rather through a combination of subsidised terminals, introductory discounts or condition models in favour of card-based payments. At the checkout that seems attractive at first, until dependence, where fees and conditions can be more easily enforced, takes effect. Our position is therefore clear: A robust payment order needs coexistence. Whoever secures provision with cash prevents dependencies – technical, economic and social. That is particularly relevant for the skilled trades, where operational reliability, customer proximity and calculable costs are not theory but everyday life.

What advantages does cash have that digital means cannot fully replace?
Cash enables immediate payments without intermediaries. It is independent of technical malfunctions or network outages and guarantees inclusion for all those who have no or only limited access to digital services. And also for those who consciously want to avoid digital dependency. Added to that is the human moment at the point of sale: For the purchase of a loaf of bread no account, no password, no device is needed. In the skilled trades, payment is often the last personal contact, a place for trust, complaint culture, goodwill. Digital ways can be efficient, but they are not neutral: They create data traces, fees and dependencies. Cash complements the system where control, simplicity and closeness count – and precisely this mix is valued by many customers.

How can cash coexist with digital payment systems?
Through “payment choice”. Where digital brings advantages, it should be available. At the same time, cash must remain reliably usable and available. And that both organisationally (deposit and withdrawal points), as well as logistically (supply) and legally (acceptance framework). For small businesses that means: not to channel customers, but to offer options. For the state: to secure infrastructure neutrally, monitor fee structures, and mentally plan for failures. Coexistence is no ideology, but a business principle: It distributes risks, limits cost levers of third parties and strengthens trust, because customers themselves decide whether to pay with or without a data trace.