Drumbeats for the cashless society

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Yeah and the electric grid did falter
and the masses raised pitchforks
for they wanted their Taco Bell
 
Yeah and the electric grid did falter
and the masses raised pitchforks
for they wanted their Taco Bell
Well, in the end, that's gonna happen.

"Cashless" is to empower the State. The non-money digital-scrip-with-strings.

What the WEF morons aren't considering, is that it sucks the motivation, the joy, the drive, out of life and out of the economy.

And what THAT does, is turn us into a late-stage USSR. In fact, even worse - the Soviet subjects could drink, smoke, fornicate, and sneer at their aged, senile, ridiculous tyrant-masters. They could trade in various black markets.

We won't have that chance, not as this is imposed - with digital surveillance everywhere.

So the motivation is gone. And so, the hard work of just SUSTAINING an incredibly complex series of systems...is not done or is sabotaged from within.

The electrical grid wobbles; the EBT cards and FedCoin chips no longer work...the cameras are defective or dead...and that's when the mattocks come out and the blood flows.
 
Title of thread is "Drumbeats for the cashless society." This guy might be the drummer.

We should scrap cash. It is holding our country back​

A short-sighted campaign has begun to save cash. It certainly has some high profile backers including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage. A petition was signed and delivered to Number 10 which prompted a supportive statement from the Treasury.

While the campaign might be popular in some quarters, this does not make it right. Rather than try to save cash, we should be trying to speed up its demise starting with 1p and 2p coins.

Moving towards a cashless society would bring significant contributions to the country. The most obvious one being to bank customers themselves. For example, everytime you withdraw cash from a hole in the wall operated by a different bank, your bank pays an interchange fee. What is more, it is costly for banks and a poor use of their resources to pay people to dispense cash. All of this means that banks provide a poorer service to their customers then they otherwise would.

More:

 
Follow up to posts 186 and 187:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has declared a deadline for the exchange or deposit of ₹2,000 banknotes. This directive, issued on May 19, seeks to remove these high-denomination notes from circulation. The deadline for this action is on Monday.

Despite the nearing deadline, these ₹2,000 currency notes will continue to be accepted as legal tender beyond September 30. The RBI’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) reiterate that the public can continue to utilise these notes for regular transactions. These can be used for personal transactions or accepted as payment without any restrictions.

Nevertheless, it is recommended to deposit or exchange these ₹2,000 banknotes on or before the deadline. This is due to the potential refusal of some entities to accept these notes. For instance, e-commerce giant Amazon has already ceased accepting ₹2,000 notes as cash payment.

The ₹2,000 notes can be exchanged or deposited in banks and RBI facilities up to a limit of ₹20,000. For depositing these discontinued high-denomination notes into bank accounts, adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and other statutory requirements is mandatory. Even for individuals without a bank account, the exchange of ₹2,000 banknotes can be availed at any bank branch.
...

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For example, everytime you withdraw cash from a hole in the wall operated by a different bank, your bank pays an interchange fee. What is more, it is costly for banks and a poor use of their resources to pay people to dispense cash. All of this means that banks provide a poorer service to their customers then they otherwise would.
Those are the dumbest reasons ever, for going cashless.

Dispensing cash is one of the primary jobs of a bank.

It'd be like wanting electricians to not have to work with electricity.

Or drivers to not have to drive vehicles.
 
Those are all the reasons they could come up with.

The **GOOD** reasons. We all know, or should know, the real reason: CONTROL.

How far do they get with this, before the average prole spits on his hand, hoists the black flag, and begins slitting throats?
 
Dispensing cash is one of the primary jobs of a bank.

Used to be. Once in a while I see people in the CU asking for some cash but not too often. I do see people getting cash at ATM's a lot.

Hardly ever see anyone paying cash at a store now-a-days. At Sam's I see a lot of peeps paying as they shop with their phones. They don't need to use checkouts. Just show the phone info to the receipt checker at the exit.

I buy food and other things for an elderly person. No cash is physically exchanged. I use a cc for the purchases, give the person the receipt and transfer money from his / her account to my account. Easy peasy. Some of my friends send money to their kids via phone apps. Bills are paid using auto pay or paid online, etc.

Any more I look at banks as transfer stations for digital dollars.

I'm no proponent for a cashless society but things are a lot more convenient today than they were years ago.

Edit to add: I'm a firm believer in having an emergency stash of cash on hand................just in case.
 
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Used to be. Once in a while I see people in the CU asking for some cash but not too often. I do see people getting cash at ATM's a lot.

Hardly ever see anyone paying cash at a store now-a-days. At Sam's I see a lot of peeps paying as they shop with their phones. They don't need to use checkouts. Just show the phone info to the receipt checker at the exit.

I buy food and other things for an elderly person. No cash is physically exchanged. I use a cc for the purchases, give the person the receipt and transfer money from his / her account to my account. Easy peasy. Some of my friends send money to their kids via phone apps. Bills are paid using auto pay or paid online, etc.

Any more I look at banks as transfer stations for digital dollars.

I'm no proponent for a cashless society but things are a lot more convenient today than they were years ago.
The quest for convenience is what will doom cash. Then bye bye to any financial privacy we had left. Thanks a lot.

Edit to add: I'm a firm believer in having an emergency stash of cash on hand................just in case.
Your own actions are working towards making that a meaningless.
 
Follow up to post #205:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the deadline to exchange or deposit Rs 2,000 notes till October 7, 2023. The apex bank made the announcement on Saturday, a day before its original deadline of September 30.

In a circular, the RBI said that Rs 2,000 note can be exchanged across banks till October 7; following which the currency will be available for exchange only at 19 RBI issue offices up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time. Individuals or entities can credit the currency to their bank accounts in India for any amount at the apex bank's offices.
...

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/new...l-continue-to-remain-legal-tender/ar-AA1huq2v

Looks like tomorrow is the deadline.
 
An update on the Swiss referendum: ...

Last news I posted on this was in February. This morning I found this report from two months ago:
August 30, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- The Swiss government started a consultation on a proposal to enshrine the availability of cash in the constitution.

The move is a response to a “Cash is freedom” initiative submitted to the government earlier this year. Campaigners want to put the issue to a national vote under Switzerland’s direct democracy system.

In a statement Wednesday, the government said the language in the proposal was “insufficiently precise.” However, it acknowledged the importance of the points and has put forward its own version, which will also create a constitutional protection for cash.

While cash usage in Switzerland has declined in recent years, it remains the second most frequently used payment method, accounting for around 28% of transactions, according to the Swiss Payment Monitor.

The government consultation will run until Nov. 30.

 
From a month ago:
Australia is rapidly heading towards becoming a “cashless society” as banks crack down on withdrawals, close ATMs and branches and ban cash altogether — with one expert predicting physical money will be completely gone by the end of the decade.

“I’d say we’ll be functionally cashless by the end of 2025 — it’ll just be a complete rarity,” said Richard Holden, professor of economics at UNSW Business School.

“But unless the government gets involved to accelerate the process I think we’ll be actually cashless by 2030.”

Macquarie Bank this week announced it would be phasing out cash altogether next year, following similar moves by Commonwealth Bank, NAB and ANZ to stop handling cash in a few branches.

The shock announcement comes after banks’ efforts to make it more difficult for customers to transact in cash have sparked backlash in recent months.

In response, another money expert has warned Australia’s banks could soon start “cash rationing” at ATMs.
...

More:

 
A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

What's Wrong With U.S. Cash​

Nov 12, 2023


9:08

The U.S. hasn't updated physical currency but some countries have changed lower denomination bills into coins and paper notes have been converted to polymer. While electronic payments are growing in the U.S., physical cash today is circulated more than ever. Experts claim that the choice to continue printing paper notes is fueled by special interests but The Federal Reserve says changing currency is costly and complex.
 
Regarding India's push to eliminate rupee notes:
Demonetisation's anniversary came and went, without any defence of the masterstroke from the Indian government.

Notebandi was the idea of a man with a diploma in mechanical engineering from Latur, a town in Maharashtra.

Anil Bokil runs an institution called ArthaKranti (economic revolution), and describes himself as an economic theorist.

His thinking was: In a country like India where 70% of the population survives on just Rs 150 per day, why do we need currency notes of more than Rs 100?

He revealed in an interview days after Modi abolished 86 per cent of India's currency how the prime minister had got the idea.
...
Modi had been specifically warned by the RBI -- the body that actually had to demonetise the notes of currency its governor had guaranteed with his signature and was arm-twisted into doing so -- that demonetisation was a mistake.

Raghuram Rajan resigned as governor after having discussed and disapproved of this move.

The new governor Urjit Patel was forced to accept it by Modi within weeks of taking office.

He then refused to release the minutes of the meeting the RBI urgently held on 5.30 p.m. on 8 November (just before Modi's speech) to approve the unhinged move, citing national security and a 'threat to life'.

When the minutes were finally leaked to the press two years later in November 2018, Patel quit and left the following month.

The RBI minutes said it had been told by the government that:
  • The economy had grown 30 per cent between 2011 and 2016 but the currency notes of higher denomination had grown at a much higher rate.
  • That cash was the facilitator for black money.
  • That counterfeit money of an estimated Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) was present in the system.
  • And, therefore, the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes should be made invalid.
The RBI's response to the government was:
  • That the economic growth referred to by the government was real while the rise in currency was nominal and not adjusted for inflation and 'hence this argument does not adequately support the recommendation' for demonetisation.
  • That most black money was held as land or gold and not cash, and abolishing currency would have no effect on curbing black money.
  • That demonetisation would have a negative impact on GDP.
  • That Rs 400 crore in counterfeit currency was insignificant (only 0.02 per cent) compared to the total cash in circulation, which was Rs 18 lakh crore.
Having said all this, the RBI board nonetheless put its rubber stamp on Modi's idea.
...

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So much for central bank independence!
 
A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

What's Wrong With U.S. Cash​

Nov 12, 2023


9:08

The U.S. hasn't updated physical currency but some countries have changed lower denomination bills into coins and paper notes have been converted to polymer. While electronic payments are growing in the U.S., physical cash today is circulated more than ever. Experts claim that the choice to continue printing paper notes is fueled by special interests but The Federal Reserve says changing currency is costly and complex.

There's always a "good" reason for those in positions of power, to do what they want to do, for anything-but-good reasons.

It's called "rationalizing." Obviously, in the best Leftist Mediuh tradition, it's giving their midwits and NPCs, PERMISSION to think as they instruct them to think. Their reasons are not to be examined logically - this is a transmission of The Narrative.

And Powell is a problem - to them - because he stands in the way of ZIRP-Infinity, UBI-Stimmy, and other MMT fantasy-theories.

Powell is probably not a nice guy, not a White Hat, but I think the current crop of radical looters are just too much for him to stomach. IMHO he was kept in his post by forces who want to blow up the financial system and blame it on him - and it's working, their Narrative sold even to lesser lights in the Non-Left side. Somehow we got the idea that ZIRP is a basic Conservative American RIGHT.

Well, it looks like it's all coming down. I have no love for the FRB, but what replaces it - government CBDCs, controlled by an algorithm, no traditional bank even required or possible - that's going to be a thousand times worse.
 
but what replaces it - government CBDCs, controlled by an algorithm, no traditional bank even required or possible - that's going to be a thousand times worse.

Not a fan of a digital currency at all. But from everything I read I think it's coming. All the stuff from the IMF & the BIS that's been posted here kinda points in that direction.

Would not want to be at the mercy of someone who could shut off my ability to buy anything on a whim or because they didn't like something I said or they don't like how I comb my hair.

Then there's the "system is down" thing. I've been in places where the credit card readers were down and / or the power went out. Cash became king then.
 
I don't know if it's coming - if we will fail in stopping it from coming - or not. I cannot conceive of a world without money, which is what that world would be...a world where government scrip, only conditionally honored, would be the only exchange tool.

And maybe that's where we wind up. As with this Transhumanism debacle (so far; with the mRNA genetic hacking) perhaps a lot of people will suffer and die in the fool's attempt to force it on the masses.

It's not even about right and wrong. It's about workable and unworkable; and about freedom - to buy what you want, earned with your sweat - or enslavement, where we're all at the mercy of a labyrinth of computer algorithms, which determine who may have what...based on how they rank according to faceless government programmers and Social Credit Scores.

Fight it with all you have at hand, because if you don't, you will surely eventually die. Or at least, suffer malnutrition and extreme discomfort until this dystopian scheme collapses.
 

D.C. Is Now Enforcing Its Cashless Business Ban: What That Could Mean for You​

Last month, Washington, D.C., became the latest municipality in which most consumer-facing businesses must accept cash as payment.

The law, which went into effect October 1, 2023, represents a growing backlash by cities across the country against businesses that want to accept noncash payments only, such as credit card and digital payments. Philadelphia and New York City have similar rules in place, and Los Angeles is considering a similar measure.

 
Dec 01, 2023
Withdrawal of ₹2000 Denomination Banknotes – Status
...
4. The total value of ₹2000 banknotes in circulation, which amounted to ₹3.56 lakh crore as at the close of business on May 19, 2023 when the withdrawal of ₹2000 banknotes was announced, has declined to ₹9,760 crore as at the close of business on November 30, 2023. Thus, 97.26% of the ₹2000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned.

5. The ₹2000 banknotes continue to be legal tender.

 
FWIW:

A Farewell to Cash​

Dec 11, 2023 WILLEM H. BUITER
While proponents of central bank digital currencies argue that the technology would boost financial inclusion and efficiency, critics warn that it poses financial, political, and environmental risks. But these concerns are overblown, especially when also weighed against CBDCs’ potential to strengthen monetary policy.

NEW YORK – The European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve have each said that they do not intend to abolish physical cash if and when a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is introduced. Recent policy briefs by the ECB and the Bretton Woods Committee argue against paying interest (positive or negative) on CBDCs. Policymakers should reconsider both stances. There are good reasons not only to support the early introduction of CBDCs, but also to pay interest on them and abolish cash.

Read the rest:

 
... There are good reasons not only to support the early introduction of CBDCs, but also to pay interest on them and abolish cash. ...

tenor.gif


That's some grade A authoritarian excrement right there, but what else would you expect from a former chief economist at Citibank and former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England?

 

10 REASONS TO FIGHT CASHLESS CONTAGION​


Total payments uberfication is a virus, and we need to build resistance to it.

Imagine referring to whisky as ‘beerless alcohol’, or to Metallica as a ‘folk music-less band’. Those descriptions are deeply uniformative because they draw attention to what’s absent rather than what’s present. The same can be said about the phrase ‘cashless society’. It’s an evasive euphemism that refers to the situation in which every transaction in our economy has to be routed via the banking sector using big tech devices. If this Big Finance-Tech Society is going to be called ‘cashless’, we better call cash payments ‘bankless’.

Cash can co-exist with cards and apps, and when kept in balance, the different forms of payment can complement each other. It’s only when that balance is removed that the dark side of digital payments gets to flourish. Unfortunately, across the world we’re seeing the spread of so-called ‘cashlessness’, a type of contagion in which the option to pay with non-corporate and non-automated money is incrementally taken away from you.

The fight against cashless society, then, is a fight against a state of unbalance. I’ve campaigned on this for eight years now, and in this piece I’ll lay out 10 talking points that you can use to make even the most ardent card-tapper have second thoughts about a totally bank-dominated society.

Read the rest:

 
WWLP Springfield

AG: “Cash has to be accepted everywhere”​

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP)–Attorney General Andrea Campbell said Tuesday her office is taking another look at an issue that had previously been settled by her predecessor, Gov. Maura Healey, and it’s something that lots of consumers have complained to her about — whether businesses can require customers pay with something other than cold hard cash.

“Cash has to be accepted everywhere. And so we’re actively reviewing this. Obviously, some things happened before I got into office,” Campbell said on GBH Radio’s “Boston Public Radio” Tuesday. The attorney general was responding to a question about “cashlessness” from co-host Margery Eagan, who said listeners had texted in with examples of cash being declined at Baystate Medical Center, UMass Memorial Medical Center, and the Boston Calling music festival. Campbell asked those listeners to file complaints with her office.

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Came across this by accident. Interesting.........imo.

Australia to amend retail payments regulation in 2024: governor​

Reforms will include better cost transparency from BNPL, mobile wallets.

Australia is amending its retail payments regulation in 2024, the country’s top financial regulator said.

Speaking at the Australian Payment Network Summit on 12 December, Governor Michele Bullock shared that the Retail Bank of Australia (RBA) is planning to conduct a comprehensive review of retail payments regulation under its expanded regulatory perimeter.

Bullock noted the need to modernise Australia’s regulatory architecture and payments infrastructure in order to support innovations in the payments’ industry.

“The payments landscape is changing rapidly, with new business models and technologies entering the space. The industry is also moving from legacy systems towards new platforms that can deliver payment services that are faster, safer and more convenient,” Bullock told attendees of the summit in Sydney, and emphasized the need to strengthen the resilience of Australia’s payments and market infrastructures.

More:

 
Not a fan of a digital currency at all. But from everything I read I think it's coming. All the stuff from the IMF & the BIS that's been posted here kinda points in that direction.

Would not want to be at the mercy of someone who could shut off my ability to buy anything on a whim or because they didn't like something I said or they don't like how I comb my hair.

Then there's the "system is down" thing. I've been in places where the credit card readers were down and / or the power went out. Cash became king then.
Since you admittedly don't like the idea digital currency, what are you doing to help prevent it?

Do you use cash as often as possible? Or cards for convenience?

Do you support those pushing for it, or those who are also opposed to it?
 
Since you admittedly don't like the idea digital currency, what are you doing to help prevent it?

Do you use cash as often as possible? Or cards for convenience?

Do you support those pushing for it, or those who are also opposed to it?

10-35
 
And that means what?

Confidential information

:p

Joe, I'm going to answer your questions.................nothing. Nothing at all. I pay for everything I buy with plastic or as a direct debit from checking. When I use plastic I either get points that turn into cash or in the case of Sam's Club, I get Sam's Cash which I can spend in the store. Works out pretty good for me.

I don't just use plastic for me. I have a couple of elderly neighbors and relatives who can't get around too good anymore so I do their shopping for them. Food, scripts, online stuff, doesn't matter. I will use plastic for that, and they reimburse me with a check or cash.

The rewards cash I get is nice. Goes into a CU account and from there any where I want to put it. In my opinion, anyone who has this available to them and who does not take advantage of it is foolish. It's free money. And as for me, I do not carry balances on CCs. They are paid off every month.

It's a win-win.

____________________________________

I do not want to see a cashless society, but I live in the real world. I have to do what will benefit me.

Spend some time in the tin foil hat threat and check out the posts about the IMF & the BIS. They are chugging right along and nothing that is talked about here will do squadouche to hamper them what-so-ever. And the United States is part of it.



Hopefully a cashless society won't happen in my lifetime. But no matter what, I gotta keep on keeping on.

__________________________________________

Getting ready to post a sailing vid in the maritime thread. It's pretty good, check it out.
 
Well, then...sad to say, you're essentially part of the problem.

At the very least, tolerating this shift.

How CBDCs go, will depend on their acceptance. If people knuckle under and accept it...now, of course, we'll be given the treatment in stages. First, introduction, with full on mediuh lackeys marveling about how WONDERFUL it is not to have to use dirty CASH. (anti)Social (in)Security and government pensioners will be treated to this new marvel, first; and then, there will be tax benefits/coersions to corporations that agree to pay this way.

Not unlike how Direct Deposit came to be.

But this is only the easy part. Once the dirty disease-riddled currency is gone...then, and only then, with no options, will we be shown the miracle of algos, of Social Credit Scores and Carbon Footprint tracking. Kobe for me, cricket-meal for thee! I'm plugged in better, to I get TWICE the meat ration you get!

Since the public will rebel at this - assaulting checkout employees or just stealing food out of self-serve groceries - we'll be back to the old-time store of a small lobby, a counter, and a grocery clerk. Back then, it was how they could do business, without prepackaging. In the New Normal, it will be how they can prevent the meat from being stolen once a checkout stand says, buyer cannot HAVE it.

So, grocery sales efficiency will go to zero. But people still need to eat, right? So we pay the added COST of our government keeping us from good food. All the clerks, locked meat cases, bonded meat movers, government security guards, government enforcers...

Yeah. It will be an unimaginable dystopian hell.

So if I can help avoid or stall it by NOT using the magic plastic, by going to a BANK, getting a large withdrawl of CASH, and MANAGING it, I will.

It'll help in the chaotic changeover, too. When they insist my railroad pension be paid in CBDCs, that's it.

I have about three months' cost of living in the cookie jar. Hopefully the situation can be un-farked by that time...if not, I'll have to sell my PMs, probably at a loss...maybe resort to highway robbery...
 
I do not want to see a cashless society, but I live in the real world. I have to do what will benefit me.
You can easily live in the real World AND use cash. How can you be against something like a cashless society, yet participate in its implementation?


Hopefully a cashless society won't happen in my lifetime. But no matter what, I gotta keep on keeping on.
Yea, fuck the next generations.


Well, then...sad to say, you're essentially part of the problem.
We already knew that.

How CBDCs go, will depend on their acceptance.
Exactly. Seems strange for people who SAY they are against a cashless society, to also do everything they can to help bring it upon us.
 
A cautionary tale from Australia:
Michele Bullock - Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia said:
...
We also remain focused on access to cash for Australians. This issue has received some attention in the media recently and I would like to provide some context and discuss the work that is underway.

The use of cash for payments has been in decline for many years as consumers have switched to digital payments. The share of consumer payments made using cash declined from 70 per cent in 2007 to 13 per cent in 2022 (when our latest consumer payments survey was conducted). Despite this decline, cash remains an important means of payment for some people and is widely held for precautionary or store-of-wealth purposes. Cash is also an important backup method of payment during system outages or natural disasters, when electronic payments might be unavailable.

For these reasons, the RBA places a high priority on the community continuing to have reasonable access to cash withdrawal and deposit services. The Government also highlighted the importance of maintaining adequate access to cash services as a key priority in its Strategic Plan for the Payments System.

The challenge we face is that as the transactional use of cash declines, it is affecting the economics of providing cash services and putting pressure on the cash distribution system. ...


Reasonable access. Adequate access. Guess who decides what is reasonable and adequate.
 
A lot of what the Aussies and Canuks have come to accept, is - of course - unacceptable. Including an exploding Died Suddenly rate, and punishment for opinions that counter the Narrative.

I wonder if we're as softened up as they were. I was thinking about that, this morning, for some reason - how nice, how civil and orderly, Canada in the 1980s was, compared to the US. Spent many weekends in Toronto, and doing stuff I wouldn't dare do in Cleveland, Buffalo or Chicago. Like, say, a 0100 walk from a downtown hotel to any one of hundreds of bars along Yonge Street.

Walk Euclid Avenue at one o'clock, with white skin...you and your wallet will go in separate directions...even if you don't join that Spirit in the Sky in the process.

But...that "niceness" of Canadians was, somehow, leveraged to install the Davos Man's plant, Justin Castro...and then turn that nation upside down. Mark Crispin Miller reports in his Died Suddenly This Week reports, that data from Canadian vital-statistics agencies is getting harder and harder to get. For anyone.

Even as they all fall over dead of the Pfizer health-bomb, they deny and obfuscate.

So...will they draw the line at electronic government scrip? I doubt it.
 
From the link:

Small slivers of hope in the Global War on Cash.

However it may seem, the title of this article does not include a typo. It mentions the year 2022, not 2023, for the simple reason that the publication of data on payment habits in the UK has roughly a one-year lag. As such, it wasn’t until late 2023 that it became apparent that the use of cash had rebounded in 2022, for the first time in ten years.

This is potentially an important trend reversal. Until recently it seemed that the British public, with a little helpful nudging from the government, high street banks and retailers, payment card companies, fintech firms and tech giants, was intent on abandoning cash as quickly as possible. A decade ago, around 60% of payments in the UK were made using cash; by 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, e-commerce booming and the contactless revolution in full swing, that figure had slumped to 15%. As in many other countries, the amount of cash in circulation did increase during this time, but this was a sign of hoarding, not of increased payments.

At the beginning of this year, Mastercard, a company that has singled out cash as its number one enemy and whose former CEO (and now World Bank Managing Director) Ajay Banga described physical money as “public enemy number one”, unveiled the findings of a survey it had commissioned into payment trends in the UK. Those findings, the company said, pointed to a further decrease in cash usage in the UK, which aligned perfectly with the company’s broader goals, exemplified by its current slogan: “World Beyond Cash”.

 
DYODD here.


Are national governments in the Euro Area about to lose another vital piece of their economic sovereignty?

One of the more interesting and, dare I say, encouraging developments to have taken place in the payments sphere in recent years has been the gathering trend among city and state authorities in the United States to pass laws banning direct-to-customer businesses from refusing cash payments, with the state of Florida becoming the latest to join the trend. It is one of the rare slivers of hope in the ever-escalating Global War on Cash (GWoC). In Europe, a similar trend is taking place, albeit at the national level.

One major difference between Europe and the US is that cash is still the number one retail payment method in Europe, though its use diverges sharply among countries. The governments of both Switzerland and Austria, two of Europe’s biggest cash-loving countries, are considering passing laws to protect the role of cash as a means of payment. The first country to turn such ideas into policy, however, was Slovakia.

ECB and EU Commission Seek to Prevent EU Member States from Constitutionally Enshrining Right to Use Cash

 
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