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I have written 380 blogs in Finextra since I was invited to join in 2008. Mostly about themes like e-banking, e-invoicing, e-id, e-salary, payments, the Single Market and lately more about the data-driven economy and its drivers DLT, GDPR and MyData. I am very grateful for having received some 1,6 million views and will try hard to get to the 2 million mark.
One thing that puzzles me is the number of views and sometimes feeling-driven comments I receive when I write about the case for minimising the use of cash - so much that this is the most viewed blog 14 597 times so far https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=15608. It is, of course, interesting - picturing a very dramatically accelerating change in consumer behavior - ATM withdrawals have dropped some 40 million times over a couple of years from already low levels in a country with 5.5 million people. 2,3 billion€ less in bills circulated back and forth in and out of the central bank in nightly armored car convoys.
Why is it important to speed up the process to a virtually cashless economy in Europe (Finland has set the target to 2029 - some countries earlier)?
1. Cash is costing merchants some 50bn€/year - certainly, all paid by unwitting consumers
2. Cash is the very essential tool for high and low crime - drug trading, arms trading, prostitution, illegal gaming, robbing, stealing, forging - you name it. How much does this cost society in police forces, prisons etc - not to mention the individuals. Of course, all crime cannot be eliminated - but it would be made much worse to run if cash would stand out as a sign of it.
3. The grey economy. The global size of it is estimated to 9,7 trillion$. Still some 15% of GDP on average in Europe. Cash is the oil for it.
4. Sustainability. CO2 caused by printing, transporting, protecting, policing, jailing etc -perhaps not that huge (compared to Bitcoin..) - but add to it the unnecessary work it causes - time that could be spent on something useful, sustainable and productive.
5. Cash management. When normal interest rates return citizens can earn also on this part - not big but still. More important is the time saved from not having to go to an ATM - there will be fewer of them in the future.
We now also see a quite rapid move away from card to mobile payments. Eventually, we can eliminate some 10 billion of PVC-plastic pieces issued every year. Expensive as such - and adding the mailing and huge fraud costs they cause this is something all responsible consumer and environmentalist organizations should drive.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
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