behind such new payment instruments. those relate, in particular, to the segment of person - to - person payments, or p2p transactions. i find it remarkable that cash dominates to such an extent when it comes to payments between individuals, such as in - home services and giving money to relatives, friends, churches or other charity organisations. our latest payments study suggests that 93 % of the value of all p2p transactions in euro was attributable to cash payments. 2 this may also reflect the still fragmented payments landscape in europe. to date, cash remains the one truly universal means of payment when it comes to p2p transactions in the euro area. but again, we have to see matters in perspective : the total amount of p2p cash transactions in euro is fairly small, amounting to about 4 % of all cash payments in the euro area. 3 4 cash as a unit of account 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches ladies and gentlemen, cash increases the diversity of payment instruments by offering several unique features : it is tactile and does not require any technical equipment. it is this haptic nature of cash which, in my view, is an important element of ensuring financial inclusion. cash as a means of payment is easily understood across the generational divide. to me, this is closely associated with the third core function of cash, which is serving as a unit of account. universally accepted currencies are not a new phenomenon : be it gold during the gold standard, the pound sterling during the industrial revolution or the us dollar to this day, all have served as major internationally accepted units of account. households value currencies they can count on and, more importantly, count with. there is arguably an important element of economic education underlying physical legal tender. we all have grown up playing board games, exchanging and counting paper money with our hands. cash bridges generations. when we at the deutsche bundesbank open our doors to the general public as part of our efforts to inform people about the tasks we perform within the eurosystem, the display of actual cash and gold at our stalls attracts visitors both young and old. these physical items serve as the first point of entry into the often abstract world of monetary policy. but, how is the increasingly widespread use of e - wallets and mobile payment apps impacting on households ’ financial literacy? are children still able to grasp the educational aspect of cash in an increasingly digitalised payments landscape? after all, there may

johannes beermann : back to the roots - cash and its core functions remarks by dr johannes beermann, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the international cash conference, munich, 10 september 2019. * * * 1 introduction good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to welcome you to this year ’ s international cash conference. as the member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank responsible for cash management, i am particularly delighted to see the active research agenda that all of you are pursuing in the field of cash. this made it both difficult and easy for us to put together this year ’ s programme. easy because we had many contributions to choose from, and who doesn ’ t like choice? difficult because who said that making choices was easy? i would like to thank all of my colleagues from the directorate general cash management who have helped organise this event or who are taking part as presenters. also, i would like to wish a particularly warm welcome to our keynote speakers, lars feld and bill maurer. we greatly value the insights that you are bringing to this year ’ s conference and i look forward to being part of the discussion with you in the panel soon. today ’ s first session especially benefits from the contributions of our guest of honour, de nederlandsche bank. the dutch central bank is one the leading institutions with regard to research in the field of cash management in the eurosystem and i look forward to hearing more about the various links between research and operational aspects. no doubt, there is currently a rather active strand of research into distributed ledger technologies and various forms of digital money. this interest is no longer confined to rather small it start - ups. central banks and international organisations are increasingly forming innovation labs to better understand how these technologies could be of “ use to the greater public ”. so far, these endeavours have been largely confined to conceptual proofs of concept and explorative, mostly theoretical considerations. but they are important, and research into cash is bound to benefit from these insights as well : the closing session on thursday will give us a first glimpse of the neurometrics applied to banknote design and the potentially digital future of cash. as exciting as these new technologies may be, a key insight that i have taken away from the discussions i have had over the last couple of years is that people care a lot about the coins and banknotes they keep in their pockets. cash is something that everyone understands and