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ChapterTitleEducation

Will COVID-19 accelerate

the demise of cash?

More about cash

For additional perspectives on the future of cash, see
"Cash dethroned? When accessible, inclusive options
exist" by O.B. Rawls IV, The Green Sheet, Oct. 28, 2019,
issue 19:10:02, and "Cash: Tomorrow's currency or
yesterday's paper" by Dale S. Laszig, The Green Sheet,
Feb. 8, 2016, issue 16:02:01.

A precipitous drop
Could this be the nudge to tip the balance and accelerate
By Simon Fairbairn, the demise of cash? Will the cry of "Cash is king" finally
Ingenico Group be over as the risk of its use outweighs its advantages?
Can the digital pretender finally ascend the throne and
very year someone, somewhere, trots out the take the crown? According to Sam Baker in The Telegraph
story that cash is dead and electronic payments article titled "Death of cash: why the low paid and the
– be they card, digital or mobile – are the new middle aged have most to lose," cash recently accounted
E king. Every year though, cash holds on, declin- for 20.4 percent of total payments in the UK. But since the
ing but fading slowly. A stubborn remnant from a differ- lockdown, cash withdrawals via the Link network are
ent age but nevertheless a vital payment medium that is down 50 percent, according to The Guardian. Cash is no
still relevant for an economy that is yet to go all-in digital. longer the dominant force it once was but certainly is still
a relevant actor on a stage burgeoning with a plethora of
For some, access to modern banking is simply not possible; more dynamic alternatives.
anything that requires credit or an acceptable credit score
remains very much out of reach. For others, cash is simply The reality, however, is that cash is still likely to be with
just a preference, one driven by a myriad of personal us for some years yet. This current crisis is probably better
reasons. The key point is that despite all the heralding of seen as the beginning of the end, one almighty nudge to
a digital economy, cash still has its place and is becoming get cash over its current sticking point and further down
more entrenched the harder it is challenged. its path to redundancy. Until we find a better medium
to cater for all – the unbankables, the grey and black
A downside writ large economies, a solution to replace the simple immediacy
and anonymity of cash – we are probably still stuck with
That is until the very essence of how it functions becomes it for some years yet.
the very thing that tests its relevance. We have always
known about the unsanitary side of cash: the many A tenacious holdover
pockets, hands and tills it passes through until it is finally
withdrawn from circulation. Now, in the throes of a On a parting note, perhaps the recent murmurings from
creeping, global pandemic, money in the form of coins the Bank of England and other central banks on the
and notes has become truly dirty. An unsuspecting culprit introduction of a central bank digital currency will take
in the spread of a virus that is wreaking havoc globally us from an almighty nudge to a grand finale and lay cash
with people's lives and the economy at large. to rest.

What better impetus to switch to an electronic medium Then again, who really knows when so far, every
where you do not even have to touch to pay. The value prediction, while correct in its direction, has fallen short
proposition of contactless payments has found a new of the final coup de grace?
champion. With contactless payments an already firm Simon Fairbairn is solution development director Western Europe for
favorite with customers, terminal providers such as Ingenico Group. For more information on how Ingenico is working to
Ingenico, find themselves working to accommodate prevent fraud in the banks and acquiring space, visit: www.ingenico.
the new increased limits for contactless transactions to co.uk/instore-payments-fraud-report. To reach Simon, please email
literally make payments even safer. simon.fairbairn@ingenico.com.

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