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.
Discouraging the use of cards and encouraging the use of cash doesn't favour the economy in the long run. Money in banks and other financial institution are constantly rotated. Meaning, they don't just sit there in the owners account or something, they are constantly invested to make more money. If more people start using cash, then you're only creating more room for leakages because not all of this cash will find it's way to the economy's financial institution and if this continues for a long period of time, the financial institution might not have enough money to invest. And one way these financial institutions invest is by giving loans to individuals and businesses.
So when these businesses don't get the required funding they need from financial institutions it affects the economy because they can't expand and be involves in more investments. This single policy if not well regulated can be a serious problem for an economy in years to come.