33: The End of Cash? “No!" Says Clive Vacher, CEO of De La Rue plc

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Today on the Money Maze Podcast we discuss the future of cash and bank notes. Throughout its history cash has inspired two persistent forces; fascination and forgery. Whilst the accepted narrative is that the use of cash is on a glide path to extinction, De la Rue’s CEO, Clive Vacher offers his view that such a perspective is both premature and contradicted by a growing population whose access to digital cash and e payments is not within reach. He argues that cash is still on the rise!

Clive who has been referred to as “the best turnaround specialist you haven’t heard of” starts with his upbringing and great academic successes and then describes his experience at companies like Rolls Royce and Bae before taking up the challenge of turning around De la Rue whose future had looked challenging.

Clive talks of the other business that sits alongside their globally deployed cash-production expertise, namely authentication and anti-fraud protocols. He explains why the authentication division is growing so fast, the theory behind a vaccine passport, tax stamps and their “traceology” platforms. He shines light on why these anti-fraud mechanisms have never been more relevant as counterfeiters have not locked-down and the value of such illegal actions are estimated by the WTO to exceed $2 trillion. Clive explains why he is excited about their future, why the 1000 patents they own have intriguing optionality, and why he has confounded the sceptics so far.

Finally he offers some potent advice about dealing with turnrounds, his role model in running a business, who he would like to fly with his helicopter license, and why his most important daily habit is talking to his employees.