The UK is now the most internet based economy of the G20 group, according to the Boston Consulting Group. As a nation, the Brits have emerged top in terms of how much of their hard-earned cash is spent online, ahead of Denmark, the United States and Germany.

The UK has clearly has caught the online shopping bug and by 2016 nearly 25 per cent of all retail spending will take place online compared to just 11 per cent in the next highest country – Germany – and 6 per cent as an average across the G20 nations. Government and investment spending is also set to rise online.

Electronic payments overall are also growing fast. According to the most recent World Payments Report, the global volume of non-cash payments transactions grew by five per cent in 2009 to 260 billion – and it would be a safe bet to assume this will continue to grow. With these two factors in mind, it’s clear that the role of cash in the economy will continue to decrease.  

So what’s behind this trend? In terms of the internet economy, it’s because UK consumers have the confidence to shop online safe in the knowledge that their payments are secure thanks to the backbone network provided by the card schemes. It is also because financial institutions have made significant investments in fast and effective fraud detection systems, which have been promoted to and proven with customers in the UK.

It’s also interesting to see that that banking and investment activity was in the top three uses of the internet along with email and research. As we look to the future, retaining that confidence is going to be vitally important – especially as we see the growth of multiple screens being used by consumers such as mobiles and tablets. Ensuring confidence in banking through any channel, such as internet, mobile, branch or ATM will be paramount if we are to stay at the top of the internet tree in the future.