In a Nutshell
The Guardian reports a significant rise in the value of cash in circulation (Euro banknotes specifically), citing ECB data. This should be surprising, since cash is used less and less for everyday transactions.
Experts say the rise in cash is linked to concern about war, wildfires, floods, storms and cyber-attacks that could disrupt online and contactless payments. In 2025, EU residents were advised to keep enough essentials for 72 hours, including cash. Several European countries have recommended that households hold some cash for basic purchases if digital systems fail.
Olive McCarthy of University College Cork told the paper that cash also matters for privacy, inclusion, budgeting and people whose access to digital money may be controlled by others. A Chief Economist at the ECB pointed to the need for legislation to keep cash machine networks available across EU.
Our Take
At its core, the issue is one of resilience through redundancy. Cash is useful because no one wants essential services with a single point of failure, in this case, digital payments.
Digital payment systems are efficient in normal conditions, but any outage (malfunction, cyber-attack, etc) need not touch every bank account to disrupt ordinary economic life. A note kept in a drawer does not help much if shops no longer accept it, cash machines disappear, staff cannot process it, or supply chains assume every payment will clear through a digital network.
Basically, advising households to keep cash while allowing the infrastructure supporting it to disappear is obviously misguided. Resilience lies in the preservation of a fallback that actually works when the preferred channel fails.
Authorities that rely on cash for crisis preparedness must also protect the ordinary conditions that keep it usable: adequate withdrawal infrastructure, a way to prevent banks from making access virtually impossible and, where necessary, an obligation to accept cash at least for essential purchases.
Read the full story at The Guardian Europe.
