cash
Rounds should make climber money superfluous
They collect in the wallet, but you can’t buy a lot with them: one and two cent coins. Some euro countries largely do without it. Now there is a proposal for Germany.
It would be a crucial step to abolish one and two cent coins in Germany: in cash payments, the next five Eurocent should be rounded up or rounded. This proposes the “National Care Forum” initiated by the Bundesbank, in which retail, banking associations, money transporters and consumer advocates are represented.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance is asked to work for a statutory rounding regulation in Germany and to promote it,” says a message published by the Bundesbank. “The rounding rules should be as uniform as possible in Europe.”
If such a regulation for Germany comes, this would mean in practice: in the event of crooked amounts, it would be rounded at the cash register. For example, 5 euros would then be due instead of 4.99 euros, but only 1 euro would have to be paid for amounts of 1.02 euros. One and two-cent coins would no longer be needed.
“Overall, the economic and ecological costs for manufacturing, packaging and transporting the one and two cent coins are high in relation to their nominal value,” explains Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz. “If we waived the circulation of one and two cent coins, cash would be more attractive for the users. In addition, the cash cycle would be more sustainable and more efficient.”
The “National Bargeldforum”, founded in Balz in February 2024, has set itself the goal of securing and keeping cash as a generally widespread means of payment.
Consumer advocates: increase acceptance of cash
For many consumers, cash is and remains the number one payment method, says Dorothea Mohn, financial market expert at the Federal Consumer Center. However, many people are reluctant to have small coins in their wallets: “Finding the last cent out of the wallet at the supermarket fund is not a pleasure for many.”
It is therefore good that the “National Cash Forum” is committed to solutions “with which the acceptance of cash can be further increased,” says Mohn. “The waiver of one and two cent coins would reduce the costs and make the cash cycle more efficient and sustainable overall.”
Commercial association: to clarify many more questions
According to its own statements, the HDE trade association is “not proactively for the introduction of a rounding rule”. For retail, crooked amounts in the competition for customers are an important instrument for price differentiation. However, the trade does not oppose the initiatives of other actors if there is an impulse to round the end amounts from there, the HDE said.
However, HDE payment service expert Ulrich Binnebößel points out that there are still a number of questions to be clarified: “A rounding must be mandatory for all trading companies. In addition, sufficient implementation periods for economic actors and extensive communication measures should be provided for consumers.”
The handling of cash differences as well as other detailed information, the procedure when buying prize -related items and the changeover of cash register systems must also be regulated.
“From the point of view of the HDE, both logistical and environmental-political reasons speak for the use of a rounding rule and thus for the abolition of one- and two-cent coins,” explains Binnebößel. “However, it should be taken into account that an additional effort arises in retailers as long as they are paid with cent coins, but they are not spent again.”
In several countries it is already rounded
Some euro countries are already trying to get by without the smallest cent coins. In Finland, for example, cash payments by law are rounded on the nearest five-cent amount-i.e. around 14.97 euros to 14.95 euros.
One and two-cent coins are not brought into circulation there, but are still considered a legal means of payment. A business in Finland does not have to accept it if it points out separately. There are similar regulations in the Netherlands, Slovakia, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Estonia.
The small coins in these countries are not completely abolished. This could only be decided at European level. “Member States cannot take their own currency measures such as the cessation of the embossing or the restriction of the circulation of certain euro coins in their territory,” wrote the EU Commission in November 2023.
The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, also made it clear in December 2023: The responsibility for measures that affect the disclosure or technical features of the euro coins lies at the Council of the European Union on the proposal of the European Commission and after hearing the European Parliament and the ECB.
Many find one and two-cent coins annoying
According to surveys, small coins are not very popular: in the latest Eurobarometer, which commissioned annually by the European Commission in all EU countries, the majority of respondents spoke in favor of abolishing one and two cent coins.
Of the approximately 18,600 respondents from the euro countries, 61 percent approved the abolition of the small coins, with respondents from Germany it was 53 percent.
Another argument from the point of view of the central banks: The copper coins rarely return to the national central banks of the euro area. A large part ends up in piggy banks or is lost – and thus largely disappears from the cash cycle.
dpa
Source: Stern
