Speaking on Friday, the conservative Austrian leader proposed a "constitutional protection of cash as a means of payment,” saying he would direct Finance Minister Magnus Brunner and the country’s central bank to come up with a plan in the coming months to ensure a "basic supply" of cash remains in the economy.
"Everyone should have the opportunity to decide freely how and with what he wants to pay," he said. "That can be by card, by transfer, perhaps in future also with the digital euro, but also with cash. This freedom to choose must and will remain."
"More and more people are worried that cash could be restricted as a means of payment in Austria," Nehammer said, adding that people have a "right to cash."
Nehammer noted that his comments are in response to claims circulating on social media that the country could soon do away with cash payments, forcing customers to use bank cards or payment apps.
According to the Austrian leader, €47 billion is withdrawn from ATMs every year in Austria and the average Austrian carries €102 in cash. Further, two-thirds of payments under €20 are made in cash, he said. Roughly 9.1 million people live in the Central European country, which is part of the European Union and the Eurozone.
While the Eurozone nations have been increasing options for cashless payment, the European Central Bank has also committed itself to preserving cash as a payment form. The Eurosystem Cash 2030 strategy was launched in 2020.
A study published by the ECB in March found that within the Eurozone, cash is still the most frequent payment method, accounting for 59% of transactions. However, 55% of consumers said they preferred cashless payments. They also found that the value of card payments had exceeded the value of cash payments for the first time, rising to 46% of transactions.
“Monitoring these trends closely going forward is important for us, given our responsibility for issuing public money (currently in the form of cash, and possibly in the future in the form of a digital euro alongside cash) and promoting the smooth functioning of payment systems,” ECB Executive Board Member Fabio Panetta, ECB Executive Board Member said in the introduction to the report.
“This will help us ensure that means of payment remain accessible to all euro area citizens, regardless of their age, income or place of residence, guaranteeing consumers’ freedom to choose how they pay, even in digital transformation.”
The ECB is also expected to present an outline for a legislative framework on a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or "digital Euro" this year. A leaked passage from the plans published by cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk in June showed it proposes to ban surcharges for using the digital currency and to offer "comparable" levels of privacy to withdrawing banknotes when using the digital Euro for offline payments.