Italy is to use more cash and fewer credit cards, bucking a global AML trend towards electronic currency, after Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, dismissed card payments as private money.Meloni, who was elected in September, is finalising her first budget, which is due to include a rule allowing shopkeepers and businesses to refuse cards and demand cash for payments up to 60. The rule would raise the current limit of 30 and includes permission to sell and buy goods worth up to 5,000 in cash, up from 1,000.
Meloni has an unusual justification for supporting banknotes over plastic. She told parliament: The only legal currency in Italy and Europe is the paper notes issued by the European Central Bank. Electronic money is not legal currency.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cash-must-be-king-giorgia-meloni-tells-shoppers-02crzx7rg ....
Most EU nations are pro AML (anti money laundering) regulation. Which promotes digital currency, CBDC and cashless society, all formats which they claim helps prevent money laundering.
The new italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni however appears to be one of the few bucking the trend. She is proposing regulations and laws which allow businesses to refuse credit cards and demand cash payments for sums up to 60. An increase from the current limit of 30.
With bank runs and related negative trends on the rise. "Cash is king" sounds like a great policy to me. Certainly this is the wave of the future. Only bitcoin beats cash. Gold, silver and precious metals are too clunky, unsupported and cumbersome to efficiently conduct transactions. The same can be said of a barter system. Cash is one of the best options we have atm.