This is a sensitive issue at a time when contactless payments are preferred and when cash appears as potential vectors of Covid-19. The use of banknotes does not present any particular risk of Covid-19 infection, assured the Banque de France on Thursday.
"The scientific analyzes entrusted in recent weeks to European reference laboratories have confirmed that the banknotes do not present any particular risk of infection compared to other everyday surfaces," said the French central bank.
"By comparing the behavior of the virus on different types of surfaces, it appeared that it could survive ten to a hundred times longer on stainless steel (a door handle for example) than on a ticket," he says. -she. The banking institution adds that "other analyzes have shown that viruses are more difficult to spread on porous surfaces like that of notes than on smooth surfaces like plastic".
Contactless payment increased from € 30 maximum to € 50
"The use of banknotes therefore poses no particular risk of contamination in everyday life, of course continuing to apply the barrier measures recommended by the World Health Organization," concludes the Banque de France.
Since the deconfinement on May 11, the ceiling for contactless payment has increased in France from € 30 to € 50, as in twenty other European countries. This method of payment reduces the possibility of contamination compared to a payment by bank card with a code to be typed on a keyboard or the handling of cash.
The Banque de France also highlights "the freedom" for a consumer to be able to "pay for their purchases in cash if they wish, particularly the most vulnerable populations for whom they are often the only possible means of payment". It recalls that cash “cannot be refused in the context of a transaction under penalty of a penal sanction, subject to the ceilings fixed by the regulations and the beneficiary's right to require the buyer to make topping up. "
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