The main goal of the state in the transition to the digital economy is simple: to get rid of cash. This is due to various reasons — the fight against shadow business and crime, control over citizens, and sometimes — the banal economies in process of circulation.
The European Union acts as a common front. The economy of the EU countries suffers from robberies, drug trafficking, prostitution, corruption and terrorism, and cash is difficult to control.
Transition from cash should cut off the primary sources of revenues for terrorist organizations: trading stolen art objects, oil, wild animals and plants, and make the economy more transparent. Each country has its own methods of solving problems.
We present you top 5 countries that are closest to refusing cash:
1. Sweden
The Swedes are the closest to getting rid of cash: now only 2% of all payments in Sweden are made using traditional banknotes and coins, while less than 20% of stores accept cash. This is three times less than in other European countries.
The threat of robberies of banks, public transport drivers and sales outlets has almost disappeared. For example, in 2008 the police registered 110 robberies of banks, and in 2012 — only five. In the near future, the country plans to limit the amount of cash payments to 70 Krona (approximately € 6) — in this case, only a couple of newspapers can be bought for cash in Sweden.
2. France
Since 2014, France has adopted laws on the limitation of cash and has practically eliminated large amounts of money from circulation. At present, in France, over 92% of payments are cashless, and 70% of the population use bank cards. Cash is mostly paid for small purchases, the average check is 25 Euros.
3. Great Britain
In Great Britain, the Paym mobile payment system is actively used to transfer money between bank accounts. Paym was the first payment system for smartphones in England, ahead of Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The primary banks and the Payments Council of Great Britain have participated in the development.
Analysts of the Guardian believe that by 2022, 80% of British people will refuse cash. Nowadays, 30% of the population has stopped using banknotes, mostly young people — they make 51%. The older generation has switched to cashless payments only by a quarter.
4. Turkey
In Turkey, a few years ago, acquiring market experts recorded a huge increase in sales of equipment for accepting plastic cards. At first they decided that citizens were simply refusing to use cash.
In fact, this was affected by the new law that came into force. According to the law, the retailer was obliged to give a high commission from each purchase, if the retailer bank and the card bank of the buyer did not match. The sellers did not want to lose profits, therefore, they purchased several terminals and each terminal was connected to a certain bank. And they gave each buyer a “suitable” terminal — depending on which card the buyer uses.
5. China
The most extensive and strategically significant breakthrough in the transition to cashless payments has been made by China, and for a specific reason — due to the backwardness of the banking infrastructure.
Cash was popular in China until 2014. It took only three years for most of the country’s residents to move to mobile platforms. In 2017, the turnover of payments through a smartphone amounted to $ 5.5 trillion — this is 50 times more than in the USA. Chinese economists believe that the country is moving towards complete refusal from cash, and mobile payments through QR code are the main step towards this.
