Demise of cash

Nick Jones blogged about cash. We managed to eliminate private cheques in Finland in 1983 by putting a charge (8c) on the cheque forms (picked up or mailed). At the same time there was a big drive for debit cards and this lead to a very positive negative trend for cash already then.

Another positive effect was that the debit card could be used for login to bill payment terminals - and this habit (to key in payments) again paved way for PC-home-banking (launched in 1982) which paved the the way for the internet version of homebanking in 1995.

Also bad for the environment: https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=2261

and a crime enabler and booster: https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=3399

Cash usage is declining steadily - as illustrated by ATM-withdrawal statistics here: