Cashless Economy

Cash is still the number one option for paying parking fees among drivers, but young drivers prefer to use cards and technology, new research reveals. According to an AA survey, about 46% of drivers say that paying parking fees in cash is the first option, rising to 56% for drivers over the age of 65 and 62% for low-income households. On the other hand, tip and pin payments are second, and contactless payments using cards or smartphones are third. Pay by app and phone to complete the top five. However, the report found that drivers aged 18 to 24 were ready to avoid banknotes and coins...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Canadians to embrace online shopping and contactless payments, accelerating a shift that’s seen consumers reach more for credit cards than loose change in recent years. Despite that, cash is thriving. At the end of 2020, about $100-billion worth of banknotes were in circulation, a year-over-year increase of $13.8-billion, according to a new paper by Bank of Canada staff. With typical growth rates, banknotes would have swelled by $4.9-billion last year – meaning the pandemic led to an extra $8.9-billion surge in demand. Read more  

Cash payments may not be accepted at Tube stations in the future as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan refuses to rule out withdrawing the option. TfL suspended cash payments at many Tube stations at the height of the pandemic in a bid to stop the virus spreading, but plans to make the move permanent were criticised by campaigners and eventually dropped over fears that up to 260,000 adult Londoners without bank accounts would be negatively impacted. Read more  

Should Idaho businesses be required to accept cash as payment? That’s the interesting question that could be coming before the Idaho Legislature. Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, introduced a bill last week stating “a person who engages in business as a seller in this state shall accept cash as a method of payment along with any other methods of payment the seller may accept.” The House State Affairs Committee agreed to print the bill, House Bill 256, after a lively discussion of its merits. On its face, it seems like a silly thing. After all, we’re headed for a cashless society,...

China is using lotteries to test its new digital currency, DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment). According to a notice from the government of Shenzhen, the city is preparing this week to conduct its second lottery to pay out prizes exclusively in the new currency, following a successful debut draw last October. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced the creation of DCEP in November last year. DCEP is the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency. It has prompted concern in the West that Beijing is exploring the creation of a completely cashless society, upon which it can exert...

Rather than jail time or hefty fines, China’s justice system is employing a new type of punishment for criminals this year: massive inconvenience. The state-run Xinhua News agency reported Wednesday that 2,421 people found guilty of bank card and mobile SIM card-related crimes in the southern Guangdong province over the past month have been barred from making mobile and bank card payments for five years. They will now only be able to use cash. The punishment is tantamount to social exclusion in a country where mobile payments are employed in every area of life, from public transport to...

The central bank says that the coronavirus crisis has caused Czechs to withdraw more cash from ATMs than usual, Hospodářské noviny reported Monday. However, this is not only to increase the ready money in their pockets – it is also because small firms have been making more cash payments at a time of uncertainty, the business daily said. Vojtěch Benda from the Czech National Bank’s board said that demand for cash shot up after Covid-19 first hit the Czech Republic in March. Mr. Benda told Hospodářské noviny that at the same time as political leaders were advocating cashless payments,...

LUXEMBOURG (CN) — Businesses in the European Union should accept cash, but countries are allowed to place their own restrictions on currency usage, an adviser to the EU’s high court said Tuesday. The nonbinding advisory opinion from Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella says companies in the 27-member political and economic union should accept euro notes because people who don’t use banks may struggle to pay with other methods, but he wrote countries can impose currency regulations so long as they are in the public interest and do not abolish the euro. The case was referred to the...

First toilet paper, now small change. As the seriousness of COVID-19 became clear, Americans stocked up on toilet paper before heading into quarantine. The resulting shortage of that particular product was one of the more peculiar side effects of the pandemic. Now months later another, a perhaps more serious shortage is at hand. In June, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell informed that Congress America’s coin supply had dwindled due to COVID. Since then, the question I am most often asked “is the coin shortage real?” This is usually followed by “or is this the federal government’s...