Why Cash Underpins Security, Freedom, and Social Stability

By Frane Maroevic, Director General, International Currency Association

At a time when the world feels increasingly unstable, the role of cash as essential economic infrastructure is becoming harder to ignore. Across regions experiencing conflict, extreme weather, political uncertainty, or widening inequality, the ability to pay—reliably and without conditions—shapes both personal security and national resilience.

The value of cash is often treated as self-evident, yet it deserves a far more deliberate defence. The evidence shows that cash is not merely a payment instrument; it is a stabilising force woven into the fabric of our societies.

Wars in Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the DRC, together with tensions stretching from the South China Sea to South Asia, reveal how fragile digital-only systems become under geopolitical strain. Crises test infrastructure, and digital networks are no exception. Electricity, connectivity, and financial platforms can all be disrupted—sometimes deliberately, sometimes as collateral damage. Cash, by contrast, remains functional when other systems falter, preserving economic continuity when it is needed most.

Natural disasters amplify this lesson. Typhoons in the Philippines, hurricanes in the Caribbean, wildfires in California, floods across West Africa, droughts in the Horn of Africa, and earthquakes from Afghanistan to Myanmar have each shown that digital-only environments are vulnerable when people are displaced, power grids fail, or communications break down. Communities depend on forms of payment that can survive the storm as well as the recovery. Cash does that: it works without electricity, without networks, and without preconditions.

But resilience is only one dimension. Cash also protects freedoms that are harder to quantify but no less essential. Paying in cash shields personal data from commercial tracking and excessive surveillance, reducing the emotional and psychological strain of living under constant observation. The presentation’s research partners place a monetary and social value on privacy, highlighting the real costs—legal, behavioural, and emotional—when it is compromised. Cash offers a space where individuals can exercise autonomy without leaving a data trail.

Inclusion remains another pillar. Around 1.4 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, disproportionately women, young people, low-income households, and the elderly. For many, cash is not simply convenient; it is the only accessible payment tool. It supports daily spending control, prevents unmanageable debt, and allows people to participate in economic life without needing digital literacy or continuous access to banking infrastructure. To remove or diminish cash is to ask the most vulnerable to absorb the greatest burden.

Cash also carries societal significance beyond individual transactions. It preserves social habits and identities, strengthens financial literacy, and keeps local economies grounded. Informal markets, cultural norms, and intergenerational practices rely on it. At the macro level, it offers states monetary independence and healthy competition—an antidote to the risks that come from relying wholly on digital payment providers, energy systems, or private platforms whose fees and policies can shift without public accountability.

Cash endures because it proves its worth where other systems fail. It holds societies steady during crises, protects personal freedoms, and ensures that participation in economic life is not restricted to those with the latest device, the strongest signal, or the right financial profile. Its resilience, neutrality, and accessibility make it one of the few infrastructures that serve every person without condition. That universal function is why cash must remain central to policy discussions—not as an artefact of the past, but as a cornerstone of security and social stability.