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Whilst traditional banks abandon the money transfer business and the non-traditional consumers who rely on these types of non-traditional services, it is non-banks who continue to serve those of modest means. This is another pointed example of why consumers are leaving the banking industry and why efforts to "Bank the Unbanked" are doomed to failure. And why government harassment of non-bank financial service providers is totally wrong and anti-consumer.

Thanks Melvin for inserting another dose of reality into the discussion.

Mercator Advisory Group predicts the number of ATMs worldwide to increase by more than 25%, from 2.6 million at the end of 2013 to about 3.3 million by 2017 to support a wide range of functions in support of users of mobile financial services, including withdrawals, deposits, bill payment, money transfers and the like.

For all the talk about Millennials not using cash, it is fascinating to read the research from the ATM industry saying that their newest source of demand is placing more ATMs in more locations with mobile interfaces to support Millennials demand for cash and related services from electronic accounts.

What a frightening thought that the US Government would abdicate responsibility for creating and operating the country's only real-time payments system to the Too Big To Behave Banks whose absolute greed precipitated the 2d worst economic disaster in US history.

If your premise is that "The predicted death of cash does not have to see every single bank note disappear to be effectively called - it just has to stop being used by the vast majority of the population." you appear to have a different definition of the words "kill" and "death" than the rest of the English-speaking world.  So the purpose of the article seems to be to sensationalize the fairly common-sense observation that over time, electronic forms of payments will "reduce" the use of cash. Brilliant. I agree.  But it is much like forecasting that the sun will continue to rise in the East. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s recent multi-country research, “even in the U.S., where electronic payments are especially prevalent, the ratio of cash in circulation relative to nominal gross domestic product has increased since 2000, a phenomena matched in other noneuro countries.”

Echos similar finding from the Bank of Canada.

Every hack of bankcard data at banks and retailers increwases the potential for consumers to return to cash.  I have now use cash more frequently for gasoline purchases as those remote, unsupervised POS terminals appear to present a higher likelihood for skimming than in-store terminals.    

Big difference between rising use of various forms of electronic payments and the death of cash

Happy to oblige with a healthy dose of reality.

The other reason why cash is NOT going away any time soon is that it is the only real-time payment settlement mechanism without recourse available to ALL consumers, and NOT dependent on a power source.  

Good grief. It appears that the 'death of cash' discussion will stop at nothing. Now it will try to use scare tactics to move its ludicrous premise forward.

Leaving aside the fact that consumers evidence no great desire to abandon cash completely, nations have several vested interests in preserving currency.  It is an important component of sovereign identity.  It acts as an interest free loan from holders.  And it is a reliable source of revenue when coins and notes are lost, destroyed or squirreled away on sock drawers.