it can be used throughout the euro area – and beyond – for payments. the payment process requires no infrastructure and settlement takes place in a logical second ; the creditworthiness of the contracting party does not play a role. in the light of the steady growth of euro cash in circulation, it is clear other means of payment are not displacing it, but that, at most, a shift is under way from the payment function to store - of - value function. the euro owes its international role to its reputation as a stable anchor of value. the debt crises of recent years have done little damage to its good reputation. in the event of a lack of trust in the stability of a national currency or in the stability of the banking sector, the euro is a reliable store of value. in pursuing its activities, the eurosystem will continue to bear in mind the important role of euro cash as an international currency. see g. rosl, “ regionalwahrungen in deutschland – lokale konkurrenz fur den euro? ”, published by the deutsche bundesbank, 2006. bis central bankers ’ speeches

global financial crisis, rose and reached its peak in 2008. the insolvency of lehman brothers in autumn 2008 and the ensuing loss of confidence in the stability of banks led to unexpectedly large cash withdrawals. euro banknotes served as a safe haven ; the currency ’ s stability was appreciated. in october 2008, about half of the net withdrawals of €35 billion went to regions outside the euro area. to date, there has been no complete reversal of this process. the opposite effect was observed during the debt crises in greece and cyprus. mistrust in the stability of the euro led to falls in international demand for the currency between april 2010 and march 2013. since then, however, there has been a steady upward trend again. the recent events in the crimea and in eastern ukraine, for example, have led to a massive increase in demand for euro banknotes from russia in recent months. the statistics probably only show a portion of the euro banknote flows, namely only those that are handled by the banking system. we have reason to believe that the actual net outflow of euro notes is higher. a simple calculation supports this conjecture : overall, the number of euro banknotes in circulation is in fact higher because of the economic variables. the gap between the actual number in circulation and the expected number amounts to €350 billion. this value thus indicates the theoretical maximum value of euro banknotes circulating abroad, while the statistics should show the lower threshold. on average, this results in a value of €250 billion, which is roughly equivalent to one - quarter of the total number of euro banknotes in circulation. bis central bankers ’ speeches since the data collected by the banks statistics say nothing about the regional distribution of demand for euro, we carry out annual discussions with banknote wholesalers. the data obtained in this way show that euro notes are mainly used in countries neighbouring the euro area. last year well over 70 % of all euro banknote sales were made to end customers in other european countries. switzerland accounted for a substantial proportion of sales and demand was also strong from the uk and russia. euro notes flowed back mainly from eastern european countries of the european union and from the eastern non - eu countries, such as turkey. over half of all purchases thus came from eastern europe. over the years, the flows of euro banknotes have remained largely the same. switzerland has traditionally been a key purchaser, because it, together with liechtenstein, is completely surrounded by euro area countries. in cross