ground. this not only applies to mobile and contactless methods as well as internet payment methods, but also to regular debit card payments. so how does the future of payments look? in my opinion, diverse and multifaceted. in the past, paying in cash was virtually the only option, and cash is still going strong even today. the volume of euro banknotes in circulation, which increases by around 5 % a year and has been in excess of €1 trillion since the end of 2014, clearly demonstrates this. but nowadays, there is also a wealth of cards – ranging from prepaid cards to contactless cards. moreover, smartphone and e - mail - based methods offer new channels to existing payment procedures. everyone should be able to pay as he or she wishes ; the bundesbank takes a neutral stance and leaves citizens to decide how they would like to pay. thank you very much for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

. counterfeits, skimming, phishing, credit card fraud – these are just some of the buzzwords associated with the security of payment transactions which are relevant for consumers. as regards counterfeits, the bundesbank offers training sessions, information material and study programmes, for example, free of charge, with the aim of combating counterfeits. both the bundesbank ’ s active involvement in the cash cycle and the issuing of new banknote series also serve this objective, among others. moreover, when we introduced the new €5 and €10 banknotes, we found that the old banknotes that were still circulating were quickly replaced by the new notes. nevertheless, it should be noted that the loss arising from counterfeits – which amounted to €3. 3 million in germany in 2014 – is only a fraction of the loss which results from card fraud. alongside possibilities for use and security, cost evidently also plays an important role in payment transactions. as we are all aware, payment transactions are not available for free. the costs are a somewhat complicated business. charges for one party mean income for another. hence, the interests of the different parties involved in payment transactions constantly diverge. the end consumers ultimately have to bear the costs of payment transactions, since the other parties take these into account in their price calculation and pass them on to the customer. it is extremely difficult to quantify whether notes and coins or cashless payment instruments are cheaper from a macroeconomic perspective. research on this has, to date, not arrived at a clear conclusion. the only thing that is certain is that the willingness of consumers to pay for payment services is extremely low. new services on the bis central bankers ’ speeches payment services market must either be very competitively priced for users or provide an additional benefit compared to existing services in order for them to become established. in addition, from a retail perspective, cash, in particular, which is often perceived as being expensive, is among the cheaper payment instruments. yet cash is not only positive in terms of cost aspects ; consumers regard cash highly because they can keep a check on how much they are spending, it ’ s easy to use, and they can remain anonymous. that is why cash will continue to play an important role in the portfolio of payment instruments in future. nevertheless, we expect the share of cash payments at the point of sale to slip below the 50 % mark over the medium term, given that cashless payment instruments are slowly but steadily gaining