Events

Mint Directors Conference 2021 – Cape Town, South Africa

31 October – 3 November 2021: The Mint Directors Conference, held every two years, is the pre-eminent international event where mint directors, suppliers, retailers and other stakeholders come together to exchange information and debate the future of coins.

Mint industry webinar – click here to register

15 December 2020, 11am (London time): The Mint Directors Conference, is holding a free seminar to discuss and share information about Cash, Coins and COVID.

More info:

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, coin circulation faced challenges.  Although coins are a payment instrument in their own right, they are, of course, only one part of the cash cycle.  Any consideration of the impact of COVID on coins starts with the wider payment scene to provide the full picture.

This talk will look at what has happened to payments since March considering both circulation data, payment surveys and payment reports.  Clearly Europe is different from Africa which is different from Asia and so on.  In the mix is the rapid development of Retail Time Gross Settlement systems, developments in non-bank payment systems and the shadow of Libra and China’s CBDC all of which aim to transform payments.

How do we model the future when the past cannot be used to predict it? There are key indicators that enable non-cash payments, it is possible to segment societies according to how they prefer to pay and then there is how to model all this.

Finally, some thoughts on how to approach sustaining cash beyond just cutting costs.

Although this webinar will start and end with coins, it seeks to allow us all to think more widely about cash as just one payment option.

Structure/Agenda:

1. Welcome and introductory remarks
2. Setting the scene – the challenges pre-COVID (diminishing demand, recirculation, demonetisation, cashless policies)
3. COVID – its impact on cash, less-cash or cashless – John Winchcombe:

• Trends in CIC – pre-COVID and, where possible, during COVID (albeit that data outside of the larger economies not available)
• Latest YouGov data
• ATM data – eg. UK, Australia, US – a sharp shock has been administered and it is turning into a year long shock.  Habits are changing.
• Impacts on cash?
  • Long term trend for cash down in developed countries and Asia
  • Mobile payments in Africa on the move, still small but…
  • CBDCs – update on developments, and look at whether they will be a complement to or replacement for cash
• Modelling/forecasting the future
• Where does that leave cash?
  • Cash is now a choice because infrastructure in place for less cash in many places
  • Think segments – wealthy, majority, those who must/those who can, the ‘left-behinds’:
    • How big are they?
    • How much cash do they need?
    • Measuring the number of transactions
  • Challenges
    • Matching non-cash (speed, convenience, loyalty points, data)
    • Keeping deposits and ATMs
    • Putting profit into the system
    • Making cash cool, needed and wanted
    • Addressing the coin challenge

4. Q&A

5. Conclusion and next steps