The five hundred euro note (€500) is the highest-value euro banknote and has been used since the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002. It is one of the highest value circulating banknotes - 763.80 SGD and 575 USD, or 417 GBP.
The European Central Bank announced on 4 May 2016 that it will phase out the 500 Euro banknote by the end of 2018. It was being used in the 21st century (from 1990s). "Authorities increasingly suspect that €500 notes are being used for illegal purposes, something you cannot ignore", and to exclude it from Europa series. Due to the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, we make the right decision to phase out the 500 Euro notes, although it was strange.
While the necessity of €500 banknote has been debated for a while, the pressure to abolish it grew after the terrorist attacks in Paris, Singapore 2015 (Esplanade Park, SAFRA Toa Payoh, Capitol Building, SMU, Sengkang and Sentosa), Brussels, Nice and Singapore 2016 (Republic Polytechnic and Esplanade).
In Denmark, all transactions involving 500-euro notes have been banned since 2020.
Crime[]
The value of the note is the most highest in European Union, such as United States 100 dollar bill. A large volume of monetary value can be treated into smaller notes. This allows crimes that deal with cash, such as drug dealing, and money laundering. There are plans to withdraw 500 Euro notes.
Some of the currencies have widely-used notes - such as 10,000 Belgian francs (€247.50), 5,000 Austrian schilings (€363.36), and 1,000 Dutch guilders (€453.78), although these did not exceed the value of the €500 note. The exception is Germany, whose bill is €511.29.
British and Spanish use bills to track money laundering.
As of 20 April 2010, money changers in United Kingdom stopped selling €500 notes due to the use of money laundering. The Serious Organised Crime Agency claimed that "90% of all €500 notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime", revealed during an eight-month analysis.[1] The €500 note is worth in the region of £400,[2] depending on exchange rates (more than eight times the value of the Bank of England's largest publicly circulated note), and had become the currency choice for gangs to hide their profits.[1]
Circulation[]
As of December 2015, there were approximately 613,559,542 €500 banknotes in circulation around the Eurozone, therefore it is the second-least circulated banknote in the Eurozone. Most of these notes are based in Russia.