LETTER FROM VIENNA
From left to right: Ewald Nowotny, Robert Holzmann and Klaus Liebscher during their press conference at the Austrian National Bank on September 19, 2022. Holzmann, in the middle, current central bank governor, is flanked by his predecessors. FLICKR
Josef Binder, 53, is the money-loving guy through and through. This discreet boss of a carpentry shop on the outskirts of Vienna, in Austria, makes sure he lives without a credit card. “I pay cash everywhere. “Also on vacation? “It’s gotten more difficult, but we’re getting away with booking at the travel agency,” explains his secretary Sabine Hatzl, 54, who has been trying to limit her card payments as much as possible since his bank asked him for information on his assets. “They blocked my account, for months that was a sign that the banks had way too much power. »
This duo, who receive guests in the small canteen of their SME, are the origin of an extremely popular citizens’ petition in the Alpine country with 9 million inhabitants. Aiming to include “the right to unlimited cash payments” in the constitution, its text had already received more than 465,000 signatures by Sunday 25 September. That’s far more than the 100,000 required under Austrian citizen petition rules to start a parliamentary debate. “And we collect an additional 10,000 signatures every hour,” says Zimmermann Binder, who is turning his fight into a crusade against a state that he suspects wants to infiltrate everywhere. “Cash is freedom. »
79% of payments are made in cash
The reason for the activism of the Austrian duo is a measure that is currently being discussed in Brussels: the introduction of a cash payment upper limit of 10,000 euros throughout the European Union (EU). Proposed by the European Commission in July 2021 to step up the fight against dirty money laundering, it is still being discussed between the Council (representing member states) and the European Parliament, but it could well be successful by December. In France, where cash payments have been capped at 1,000 euros since 2015, it is unlikely to have any impact if passed, but that is different in Austria, where there is no limit so far.
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As in Germany or southern Europe, Austrians are still passionate cash users and often pay for their purchases in the supermarket with bundles of 200 euro bills. According to the latest 2019 statistics from the European Central Bank, 79% of payments in Mozart’s home country are made in cash, compared to 59% in France. According to a study by Austria’s central bank, Covid-19 has certainly reduced the use of cash to 66% of payments in 2020, but it remains “the most popular form of payment for people living in Austria,” she recalls.
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