The War On Paper Currency Begins: ECB Votes To “Scrap” 500 Euro Bill
- DRAGHI: ANY ECB ACTION ON EU500 NOTE IS NOT ABOUT REDUCING CASH
Translation: the ECB action is only about reducing physical cash, some 30% of it to be specific.
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The first shot in the global war on cash was just fired, by none other than the ECB, which moments ago Handelsblatt reported…
ECB wants to stop issuing 500 Euro bills – our exclusive https://t.co/LLe2qyhBjK
— Daniel Schäfer (@schaeferdaniel) February 15, 2016
… and Bloomberg confirmed – ECB COUNCIL VOTES TO SCRAP EU500 NOTE: HANDELSBLATT – has voted to scrap the second highest denominated European bank note in circulation:
… after the CHF 1000 note.
So what, big deal, eliminate it. The people will still have 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 euro bills right.
As we wrote just one week ago, the answer is not that simple at all. Recall that the €500 note is the second highest currency denomination in G10, after the CHF1,000 note. More importantly, the total value of €500 notes in circulation amounts to €306.8bn and has been rising as shown in this BofA chart:
Furthermore, as a share of the value of total euros in circulation, the €500 note is the second-highest, after the €50 note.
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