Cashless Economy

Statistics Canada is asking banks across the country for financial transaction data and personal information of 500,000 Canadians without their knowledge, Global News has learned. Documents obtained by Global News show the national statistical agency plans to collect “individual-level financial transactions data” and sensitive information, like social insurance numbers (SIN), from Canadian financial institutions to develop a “new institutional personal information bank.” Read more

Months after Philadelphia and New Jersey passed laws requiring retailers to take cash, lawmakers in Congress are seeking to ban cashless stores across the country. U.S. Reps. Donald Payne, D-N.J., and David Cicilline, D-R.I., introduced competing bills last week that would force brick-and-mortar retailers to accept cash. Both bills would exclude online transactions and those done over the phone, though the proposals differ over who would enforce such a law. “The Payment Choice Act was informed by what’s going on in New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and elsewhere,” Payne said in a...

The government and regulators must be prepared to force banks to retain a physical network for the many vulnerable people who could otherwise be left with no access to face-to-face services, MPs have warned. The Commons Treasury select committee said in a report published on Monday that without government intervention, Britain risks “inadvertently becoming a cashless society”. Large sections of society — especially older people and those on low incomes — rely on bank branches and cash, despite the rapid shift towards online banking and contactless payments. Read more

Sweetgreen announced Thursday that it will reverse its cashless policy and will accept credit, debit, and cash by the end of 2019 at all its locations. The announcement comes while the New York City Council considers a bill that would ban cashless stores. This bill aims to protect the rights of the 360,000 unbanked New York households to shop at local stores. Read more

In a sign of the growing backlash against “cashless” stores around the country, the City of Philadelphia will require retailers to accept legal tender starting this summer. Retail outlets that have stopped accepting cash say it is faster and easier for their employees to process digital payments. But critics say the practice discriminates against people without bank accounts or credit cards, or who simply prefer to pay cash. Read more

Commissioned as a response to the rapid decline in cash use in the UK and funded by LINK, the UK’s largest cash network, the review concludes that the UK is not nearly ready to go fully cashless, with an estimated 17% of the population – over 8 million adults – projected to struggle to cope if it did. Read more

Cybercrime is one of the most crucial problems faced by the countries across the globe these days. It includes unauthorized access of information and break security like privacy, password, etc. of any person with the use of internet.  Cyber theft is a part of cybercrime which means theft carried out by means of computers or the Internet. Read more

Once hailed for the increased financial security it would provide, the digital revolution is now showing its dark side, with a new and potent form of digital threat. Across the world, increases in fraud are alarming consumers and leaving law-enforcement agencies faced with a task they are ill-equipped to tackle. To make matters worse, the cashless revolution aims to eliminate the fallback solution: currency. Read more

Financial fraud cost UK consumers £732m in 2017, with authorised push payments (APP) costing an additional £236m. UK Finance  figures report that 58% of fraud involves payment cards, opposed to 16% for online banking and 1% for cheques. “In 2018, over a third of the world’s consumers experienced debit or credit card fraud,” says Justin Hansen, security architect at Venafi. “This may have a serious impact on credit assessments, as organizations are forced into a hard choice of either excluding customers that appear risky – potentially through no fault of their own – or relaxing their...