Financial safety

Suspicious bank notes lead to Luxembourg

High denomination banknotes have long been seen as a problem, but it took a solid security argument – the financing of terrorism – to galvanise the EU into action.

At a time when the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have all taken their biggest banknotes out of circulation to help combat organised crime, the continued existence of the €200 and €500 notes is something of a throwback.

...Since the creation of the euro, the number of €500 notes has multiplied by six, while the number of €10 and €20 notes, highly called-for in day-to-day business, has remained stable.

Of the €1,000 billion of cash in circulation, €307 billion, or one third, was in the form of €500 notes by the end of 2015. But little is known about these notes, beside the fact that they are generally refused by shop-keepers and that citizens are hardly aware that they exist.