End of the road for €500 notes

The European Central Bank is to phase out the €500 note, after it voted to stop printing the note in a meeting yesterday.

The ECB announced on Wednesday would no longer be printed or distributed from 2018, on the grounds that they are too often used to finance crime.

According to ECB statistics, €500 bills account for only 3% of the total number of euro banknotes in circulation, but nearly 30% of the €1tn in use last year. A survey in 2011 found that 56% of EU citizens had never actually used one.