The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) co-hosted the 10th Asia Cash Cycle Seminar 2019 with Currency Research recently at Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo. The Cash Cycle Seminar, formally known as the International Commercial Cash Operations Seminar (ICCOS), is a premier global event for stakeholders of commercial cash management, distribution, and circulation. Sri Lanka was the first South Asian nation to conduct this seminar in its 24-year-old history, CBSL announced in a press release. This is a unique event that brings together cash industry leaders and experts from the Asian region and beyond under one roof, providing a platform for an exchange of views and ideas on cost-saving technologies, strategies, and best practices to enhance efficiency and optimisation of the cash cycle and showcasing the rapidly changing developments in the alternative modes of payment methodologies. Accordingly, this event brought together over 180 participants from over 34 countries, including delegates from 18 central banks, key decision makers and managers from commercial banks involved in currency operations, cash management companies, and industry suppliers and experts. The main seminar kicked-off on 24 September, with opening remarks delivered by Currency Research Vice President – Operations Dan Harrison, followed by welcome remarks delivered by Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy. Harrison recalled how they proceeded to the success of this event after the shocking incidents of 21 April in Colombo, particularly at Shangri-La. He noted that he visited Sri Lanka as early as he could, around four weeks after the incident, to assess the situation on the ground, and the message he received was quite clear – Sri Lanka will be ready to welcome the event. He was determined that he would not let down the good people of Sri Lanka and that he would stand by them whatever it takes. It was a challenge, but he kept faith that all would be ready and Sri Lanka would be ready. With the outstanding support of several government agencies, CBSL, and other local institutions, the seminar attracted over 120 delegates from overseas and it was a great success. Harrison invited all participants to make use of the opportunity to share knowledge by interacting with the experts in the field during the two-day seminar. The CBSL Governor, warmly welcoming the participants, stated that the participation of a large number of foreign delegates at this event is an assurance to the world that Sri Lanka is a safe place to travel and that it would give a positive signal for reviving the tourism industry of the country. The Governor outlined the current macroeconomic framework of Sri Lanka, highlighting the positive outlook of the economy. Moving on to the matter of the seminar, the Governor stated that physical currency issued by CBSL is the most widely used form of payment in Sri Lanka as in many other countries, and the usage of alternative payment methods depends on various factors such as availability of different products, supportive legal framework, policies and regulatory systems, internet and telecommunication infrastructure, etc. He briefly mentioned the key milestones in the evolution of Sri Lanka’s electronic retail payment infrastructure and key initiatives taken by CBSL to promote cashless payments including mobile payments. Further, he stressed the importance of physical infrastructure resilience and cybersecurity for digital payments as failures of infrastructure and cyberattacks would directly affect the people’s trust on the reliability and safety of digital payment methods. The two days of presentations, panel discussions, and knowledge sharing sessions by CBSL officials, international and local cash experts, payments and related industry experts, and currency technology experts covered trends in cash usage, the cash cycle and digital payments, emergence of digital currencies, lowering cost of cash operations, digitisation and cyber resiliency, recycling ATMs, regulating cash management companies, automation of cash centres, etc. The key takeaways from the two days were that industry collaboration was critical to an efficient cash cycle and key areas of focus were on regulation, outsourcing, recycling, industry standards, and continuous dominance of cash as the most popular payment instrument in the world. Further, there were two pre-seminar workshops hosted by CBSL and the Asia Cash Management Association on 23 September. The seminar concluded by Harrison announcing that the Asia Cash Cycle Seminar 2020 will be held in Philippines, co-hosted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of Philippines).