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Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser: »I support the introduction of a general cash limit of 10,000 euros«
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) calls for an upper limit of 10,000 euros for cash payments.
"A 30,000-euro cash purchase of jewelry or watches should soon be a thing of the past," said the SPD politician of the "Bild am Sonntag".
»I support the introduction of a general cash limit of 10,000 euros.
This reduces the risk of criminal assets being concealed.«
Faeser wants to break up criminal structures and deprive them of criminal income, the newspaper reported, which put Faeser's initiative in the context of clan crime.
The Federal Interior Minister is striving for a Europe-wide solution.
The EU Commission had already made the proposal last year to only allow cash payments up to a maximum of 10,000 euros, apart from a few exceptions, as part of a package of measures against money laundering.
At that time, two-thirds of EU countries had already introduced upper limits for cash payments - unlike Germany, where such a regulation has been a controversial issue for years.
Between no and too much control
AfD politician Beatrix von Storch commented on the EU Commission's plans in Germany: »The seemingly high sum, which most citizens are not initially affected by, is only intended to distract people from the fact that there is actually much more at stake: about the abolition of cash in payment transactions and thus total control over all financial transactions.«
However, the problem of money laundering in Europe is considered huge.
"According to estimates, suspicious transactions within Europe amount to several hundred billion euros," said the European Court of Auditors in 2021.
mbo/Reuters
