500 euro note: why us the five-hundred moves so – Handelsblatt

500-euro bills

500-euro bills: The days of this bill are numbered. Now it’s just a matter in which way they will be abolished.

(Photo: AFP)

“The freedom often dies piecemeal” Commenting Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele a while ago the possible end of the 500-euro note. The Bundesbank saw no need at the current denomination of bills to change anything. Unlike the clearly see the colleagues of the European Central Bank (ECB). Because even on Wednesday, the Council will consider whether the 500 euro note is abolished. Although the German monetary authorities have so far spoken out against the end of the most valuable euro note, his end is likely to be already approaching.

Even mid-April it became known that the bank-Committee (Banco) the ECB is working on several plans to abolish the 500-euro note. About this, the Governing Board should advise at their meeting. According to central bank circles there is a majority for the abolition of the 500ers. is yet to be clarified exactly how the bill is to be abolished.

So far, all indications are that the bill will be indefinitely exchangeable and is taken so very slowly and gradually out of the market. Such Thoughtful approach would probably prefer the Bundesbank, they say. Moreover, the slower the bill will be abolished, the cheaper the whole process is likely to be because smaller bills would then be reprinted only slowly.

Most people can not remember ever having paid a 500 probably not. Basically remain cash but still very popular among German savers. According to a recent survey conducted by the FOM Hochschule Nürnberg on 1300 professionals 17-57 years, four out of five against the abolition of cash.

To be printed the 500-euro note?
According to ECB statistics of 500 euro note was printed for the last time in 2014 by the Austrian Central Bank. 85 million bills came time from the printing press, with a total value of 42 billion euros. The Bundesbank was responsible for printing the 500-euro note in 2009 last.

How much is the abolition of the 500-euro note?
costs for the abolition of illusion arise mainly because the circulating of approximately 600 million notes replaced by smaller bills Need to become. The faster the 500 to be withdrawn from circulation, the more expensive it would be, because then the pressure capacity could be tight. At best, the Central Bank Rechet with costs amounting to at least 500 million euros alone for printing. Costs for the logistics of the bill exchange, presumably also a three-digit million amount. Wear would cost all central banks that print banknotes on behalf of the ECB. According to estimates accounted for the Bundesbank over a quarter of spending.