• Javier Rupérez (Madrid, 1941) is a Spanish politician and diplomat. He was a member of parliament and senator, as well as Spanish ambassador to the United States and to NATO. He is currently the president of the Denaria platform, an association whose aim is to defend cash and seeks to warn about the risks of limiting this type of money as a method of payment.

• Rupérez, who is also a contributor to El Debate, spoke to this newspaper in the same week that the conference Financial inclusion in Spain. Cash as a secure and sustainable solution. The conference addressed the risk of the decline in the use of cash, especially for the most vulnerable.

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Why is cash so important?

Javier Rupérez (Madrid, 1941) is a Spanish politician and diplomat. He was a member of parliament and senator, as well as Spanish ambassador to the United States and to NATO. He is currently the president of the Denaria platform, an association whose aim is to defend cash and seeks to warn about the risks of limiting this type of money as a method of payment.

Rupérez, who is also a contributor to El Debate, spoke to this newspaper in the same week that the conference Financial inclusion in Spain. Cash as a secure and sustainable solution. The conference addressed the risk of the decline in cash, especially for the most vulnerable.

Why is cash so important?

-It is impossible to imagine the social market economy without the existence of cash, without legal tender. Cash means freedom. We at Denaria are not against the digital system. But we do believe that it is important to maintain the freedom of citizens to choose what they want. Secondly, cash gives the citizen more security. At the same time, when we use cash we calculate much better what we are spending. Third, it brings security. The money we carry in our wallet is ours, it's not pending on anyone, it's not pending on a card, it's not pending on a digital system. And at the same time it provides important collective security. Unfortunately, digital systems collapse. It happened in Spain just a few months ago. At that time, neither sellers could get paid nor buyers could buy. And finally, if we look at the social structure, we find people and social groups that need cash: the elderly, the disabled and people living in empty Spain.

Practically 6 out of 10 Spaniards use cash. Even so, the number of ATMs continues to fall.

-In the last ten years, more than 10,000 bank branches have disappeared and, consequently, so have the number of ATMs. We are trying to talk to the Bank of Spain to find a solution, because banks are private entities and in the end they serve only private business, but it also has to be seen from a public point of view. We are working with the public sectors, for example with the provincial councils. There are some that have been concerned mainly with talking to the banks to ask that, in each and every village in their respective districts, there should be at least one ATM.

We are also talking to public entities, such as the post office, for example, to use their systems to collaborate with banks and guarantee access to cash. And with other sectors that are public-private, such as pharmacies, so that they can become cash depots, so that they can be the ones to guarantee access to cash for all those who need it. What makes absolutely no sense at all is that there are villages that do not have access to cash, and that the inhabitants of that village have to travel 15 or 20 kilometres to use cash. And that is why we are also working on a legislative system to ensure that this access does not go further than three kilometres.

The United States has phased out the production of pennies, claiming that they are too expensive. Could this be seen as a first step towards the end of cash?

-In the United States, what we are seeing now is something called ‘Trumpism’, which is directly linked to the great tycoons of industry, the richest in the world, who are used to great financial adventures. They, indirectly, promote the disappearance of cash. The first measures taken have been to abolish certain currencies. This seems to me to be absolutely wrong. I have lived for a long time in the United States, and in the country I know, cash has a much more powerful reality than in much of Europe. You cannot tell an American that the physical dollar, whether in paper or coin, will disappear. It doesn't go with the sentiment of the country. Something similar happened in Europe, for example in Sweden, five years ago, when the Covid pandemic began and the Swedish government and its financial systems took measures aimed at the disappearance of cash. However, after five years, they are reconsidering those decisions, rediscovering cash and taking legal and economic measures to bring it back into existence.

This week, during a day in Congress, Denaria denounced legislative contradictions that limit the use of cash. One of them is the limit on cash payments in Spain, which stands at 1,000 euros.

-There is a European law, which has been translated into a Spanish law, which makes it compulsory to accept cash as a payment system. This law opens up the possibility for each country to set a limit. Some countries have no limit, others have 10,000 euros, others 5,000 euros. Spain is on the lowest scale with a limit of 1,000 euros. This is not illegal, but it is unrealistic. Setting such a limit makes certain economic transactions complicated. What is illegal are laws such as the Housing Law, which requires rent to be paid by bank transfer. Since almost no rent is less than €1,000, this practice is illegal under European law. On the one hand, we are working to raise the limit to €10,000. On the other hand, we are working to make cash a strategic reserve, which is crucial in case of natural disasters or war, where digital systems can fail. Cash becomes an essential reserve, and we are working to have this legally recognised.

If the technology fails, many other people would be left without the possibility to pay because they don't have cash. How important is it to raise awareness of its use and how?

-We see a lot of young people paying by card or even by watch, and it is clear that we need to raise awareness of this. During the meeting in Valencia, the Governor of the Banco de España publicly highlighted the importance of access to cash and thanked two specialised cash-in-transit companies, Denaria's partners, for their dedication to making this happen. Having cash at home helps to maintain secure access and participation in economic life, even in crisis situations. And that is why we need to talk about these aspects. It's not that we play with the idea that there will be a catastrophe, because we don't want them to happen, but they do happen, as we see every day. We have to be aware that, at some point, we might need cash just to survive.

Also, cash is key to financial inclusion, allowing everyone to participate in economic life. It is also important to talk about the issue of privacy. With cash, no one knows exactly what you buy, where you are or where you are going. With digital systems we are absolutely in control. I am not saying that cash is better because it allows us to do things that are not allowed, but it protects our privacy in everyday activities. On the other hand, many current frauds and financial problems occur because of illegal access to our data, provided to banks and card companies.

The European Central Bank is working on a digital euro. What will happen to cash when it is put into circulation?

-There are many questions that many people are asking and they are difficult to answer. First, why a digital euro? We already have a digital version of the euro. The money you take out of a cash machine is digital, processed electronically, even if you receive it in cash. Second, why is the European Union, and in particular the European Central Bank (ECB), pushing for a digital euro? In my opinion, it is a response to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. The ECB wants to offer a public digital currency as an alternative to private digital currencies. It is a way to ensure that the legal currency is the ECB's currency, not bitcoins. That makes sense, but another unanswered question is, how exactly will it work? Some technical people suggest that there could be a €3,000 limit. This would mean that we would not be able to hold more than that amount in digital euros, which raises more doubts. Early plans indicated that the digital euro would not be ready until 2027, but recently a possible acceleration of the process has been mentioned, although there is still no certainty. It is complicated.

What is your assessment of this draft currency?

-I do not see the need. I don't see the need for the digital euro. I don't know what it would add to what we already have, neither in terms of daily traffic, nor in terms of access to financial possibilities, nor in terms of financial inclusion or exclusion. I simply do not see it. I am looking around for you to explain exactly where you are going, but so far I don't see that it adds anything significant. Nothing.

Source: El Debate