It's an exciting question: Will cash, which was replaced by card payments in many shops for reasons of precaution alone during the pandemic, will be used a little more frequently once Corona has subsided?

Or are the bills and coins relics of a pre-digital age whose inevitable replacement was only accelerated by the pandemic?

At a press conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday, Bundesbank board members Johannes Beermann and Burkhard Balz explained that it was still too early to give a definitive, serious answer to this question.

Among other things, one has to wait and see how the proportions of card and cash payments change in the statistics when fairs and Christmas markets, with their high proportion of cash payments, take place again.

However, some branches of the Bundesbank,

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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The demand for cash, which is constantly being monitored by the Bundesbank, has increased again in recent weeks, said Beermann.

He blamed three factors for this: the normalization of the economy after the pandemic, the announcement of strikes at money transport companies, which would have persuaded some banks to increase cash orders as a precaution - and the malfunctions with card readers in retail.

"During this phase, more money was withdrawn from ATMs as a precaution," says Beermann.

Balz explained that the disruptions had affected around 10 percent of all card terminals in Germany.

"We were surprised and not amused," said the Bundesbank board.

The case will be "worked up very precisely": "It goes in the direction of a systemic risk."

Cash only accounts for 30 percent of sales

For the past year, on the other hand, the Bundesbank presented a comprehensive study that showed how much the pandemic had changed the payment behavior of Germans in the direction of card payments.

"Before the pandemic, my baker gave me a weird look if I wanted to pay for the rolls with a card - now it's the other way around," said Balz.

For the surveys by the Bundesbank, the Bundesbank asked 5,870 Germans about their payment behavior and also had some write a "payment diary" in which they noted all payments and payment methods for three days.

This was then compared with a similar survey from 2017.

It found that cash accounted for 58 percent of the number of transactions, down 16 percentage points.

Cash accounted for 30 percent of sales, a drop of 18 percentage points.

Debit cards such as the Girocard accounted for 23 percent of the number of payment transactions and 30 percent of sales.

Credit cards accounted for 6 percent of payment transactions and 10 percent of sales;

both were significant increases.

More direct debits and transfers

Transfers and direct debits were also used more frequently during the pandemic.

Internet payment methods such as Paypal increased their market share due to the growing importance of online trading during the pandemic.

And mobile payment methods via smartphone and smartwatch accounted for a significant share of 2 percent for the first time.

The Bundesbank also asked the Germans what they value most about cash or card payments.

When it came to cash, anonymity was paramount.

Respondents also said they had a good overview of spending.

Regarding card payments, respondents stated that there was no need to worry whether there was enough money in the wallet.

In addition, it is easier and faster.

The Bundesbank also asked people about crypto tokens and found: "The reserved attitude towards crypto tokens has increased somewhat." Only 4 percent of those surveyed said that they had already purchased crypto tokens at all.

83 percent, on the other hand, stated that neither purchase nor use were planned.

Bundesbank board member Balz also briefly reported on the status of the plans for the digital euro.

He said the new digital currency will not be launched before the second half of 2026, possibly a year later: "Personally, I would say that of the 100 projects at central banks worldwide, the Eurosystem is somewhere in the second quarter."