March 12 has been designated Global Cash Day, an international awareness initiative highlighting the continued importance of cash for consumers, businesses, and economies worldwide. The campaign encourages people to recognize the value of maintaining access to cash and preserving payment choice.

“Cash means freedom of choice, inclusion, safety, independence, resilience, and reliability," said the Ligue’s Tanja Kulisch-Ziemens. "In recognition of its value, we are proud to celebrate the first Global Cash Day.”

The global initiative aims to highlight the continued importance of cash by asking people to (first) withdraw cash and (second) use it for purchases on March 12. “And third, tell others about the benefits of using paper money in today’s digital age, like maintaining privacy, helping the poor, and providing resilience during natural disasters, and power outages,” explained Prof. Jay Zagorsky at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business in an announcement video at the campaign’s website.

Cash means freedom of choice, inclusion, safety, independence, resilience, and reliability

By sharing participation online with the hashtags #getcash and #paycash, people can amplify the popular movement to ensure cash remains accessible and universally accepted and is additional evidence of a growing backlash against governments and businesses pushing a cashless future. Recently, we covered citizen-driven efforts to protect cash, from rural Australia to England, and the push-back against cashless policies and the erosion of cash access. (See Power to the People: Citizens Demand Cash Protections).

Why Cash? In a rapidly changing payments landscape, cash remains trusted, reliable and widely used by billions of people around the world, and the Ligue’s Cash Chapter advocates for a legal protection of cash and its distribution network to ensure that Cash is available, accessible, and accepted.