COVID-19 heightens the age-long concern of the hygiene risk of cash. The U.S. Federal Reserve increased the minimum holding period to ten from five days for bills coming from overseas. Banks in China were ordered to disinfect cash before issuing it to the public. The Bank of Korea is putting currency notes through a high-heat process before releasing them for circulation. ‘There will be more outbreaks. That is not a maybe,’ said Alanna Shaikh, the global health consultant.
A long term alternative to physical cash now looks even more appealing, and people place more trust on central banks than payments service providers, commercial banks, credit card companies and technology companies to issue digital currency as reported by OMFIF in March.
Arrival of CBDC is imminent. The sequel to the