Johannes Beermann: Cash and digital currencies from a central bank's perspective

Keynote by Dr Johannes Beermann, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the Payment Asia Summit, Shenzen, China, 22 November 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

1 Introduction

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to take part in today's proceedings. Considering the topics covered in the sessions to follow, you may consider me the "odd one out". After all, as the member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank responsible for cash management, I arguably very much represent what many of you may consider the "old world of payments".

• A world in which there is limited space for innovation and progress. A world that is generally high in risk but low in reward.
• That is what is often claimed, at least.

In giving you my European and my German perspective, in particular, let me tell you: this case is not as straightforward as it may seem.

In Germany and the euro area at large, the circulation of cash remains on the rise.