THERE IS NO evidence that President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde is planning to outlaw cash transactions of more than €1,000.

The claim appears to confuse rules already in force regarding large cash transactions in the European Union, French laws and prohibitions on cryptocurrency trading.

“The President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde reguses to justify, at Davos, why she wants to make cash transactions over €1,000 illegal,” a post on X by a group called Vox Populi said.

On their website, Vox Populi describe themselves on a mission “to broaden the Overton window of culture and politics”.

(The Overton window is a theoretical term referring to the range of subjects and arguments acceptable in mainstream discourse. For example, there were public debates in the past about whether slavery should be legal or whether women should be allowed to vote. These are now considered outside the Overton window – most people would not bother to engage seriously with such a debate topic).

Many of Vox Populi’s recent posts feature public figures in Davos walking away as questions are shouted at them, while their previous posts often include updates on anti-Islam activists.

The post that included the claim that Lagarde has plans to make cash transactions above €1,000 illegal has been viewed more than 1.8 million times since it was posted to X on 20 January.

A video accompanying the post shows a man with a microphone following Christine Lagarde, who says she isn’t giving an “interview” though she does say “bank notes will always be available”.

A follow-up post the next day by Vox Populi makes the same claim, along with a video showing the same man shouting questions at Lagarde, including saying “Christine, ignore this question if making purchases over €1,000 in cash illegal is all about authoritarian control…”

Lagarde does not respond. “There you go!” says the man in the video.

“She’s had all night to think about whether she still wants to make it illegal to make cash purchases of over €1,000. She still will not answer. Their silence speaks volumes.”

However, The Journal was unable to find any evidence of plans by Lagarde to make cash transactions of €1,000 or more illegal. Instead, the person in the video appears to be conflating a number of already existing rules.

Crypto and EU limits

In 2024, new anti-money laundering rules were enacted in the EU. These create new rules on large cash and cryptocurrency transactions, though they are in no way a law against two people exchanging €1,000 in cash. 

In effect, these rules mean that cash exchanges of more than €10,000 are regulated – though there are exemptions, including non-professional payments between people.

Those same rules also set limits on exchanges of cryptocurrency, meaning that anonymous exchanges above €1,000 are effectively forbidden, and “due diligence” (which generally includes providing proof of ID) must be carried out by cryptocurrency service providers.

However, both these measures are a far cry from outlawing any exchange of €1,000 in cash or more.

In addition, as Christine Lagarde is not a lawmaker, she would have had no formal role in making this rule, which was passed by the European Parliament.

However, the European Central Bank, which she leads, did submit a formal opinion warning against setting limits on low-level cash exchanges, saying it could diminish the Euro’s status as legal tender.

A dubious video

However, similar claims about Lagarde planning to limit cash transactions have spread in conspiracy theory circles in the past, all citing a very dubious source: a Russian prank involving impersonators.

The claim specifically originates from a Russian duo of impersonators, who released a video in 2023 purporting to be a webcam interview with Christine Lagarde.

In that video, the pair said they had pretended to be Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to get her to talk.

Given the source of the video, it is possible that the footage has been faked or edited. However, no obvious signs of tampering are present. More importantly for the purposes of this debunk: despite the inferences of others, Lagarde does not say in the video she plans to ban cash transactions of €1,000.

Rather, in a discussion about regulating cryptocurrencies, Lagarde says: “Now we have, in Europe, this threshold, above €1,000 you cannot pay in cash. If you do, you are on the grey market. You take your risk.”

This comment has been widely interpreted to mean Lagarde was planning to bring in new rules about cash payments above €1,000. However, this is not what she said. She was talking about a rule already in place, though it is unclear what exact rule she is referring to.

She may have misspoke and meant to say “crypto payments”, or perhaps she meant to say “€10,000”, both of which were covered by the EU’s 2024 anti-money laundering rules, though these were still being proposed at the time.

Another possibility is that Lagarde wasn’t speaking about the whole EU, but about certain countries in Europe, namely France, where Lagarde is from.

For resident taxpayers in France, there is a cash limit on transactions of €1,000. Again, there are numerous exceptions to this, such as where a person presents ID; transactions between private individuals (the example given is buying a car); or for people who don’t have bank accounts.

For people who aren’t French residents, the limit is €15,000.

The rule setting limits on cash transactions have been in force since 2001 (though then the limit was 5,000 francs). Although Lagarde would later serve as finance minister for France, at the time this rule had come into force she had not yet entered politics.

It is hard to know exactly what Lagarde may have meant in an off-hand comment in a dubious video with Russian pranksters imitating Zelenskyy. However, even taken at face value, the utterances in the prank video are no evidence of plans to ban cash transactions of more than €1,000.

In far more likelihood, the statement referred to already existing limits that Lagarde did not enact.

In either case, there is no evidence that Christine Lagarde wants to outlaw cash payments above €1,000.

The European Central Bank, which Lagarde leads, has warned against governments setting limits on small cash payments.

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