In a world invaded by the digital, coins and bills make resistance. Despite the many actors, private as well as public, supporters of a company without cash, not all consumers are ready to take the plunge. Cash still has good days ahead of him.Tribune libre by Frantz Waze, Chief Financial Officer of Banque Travelex.
Forgetting cash: this is the bet that has been launched in Sweden for several years to fight against fraud and save money. In the Scandinavian country, cash dispensers are scarce, merchants refuse cash payments and even pay machines can be settled without money. As a result, Swedes now use their bank cards for more than 80% of their purchases. At the World Forum in Davos in 2016, John Cryan, at the helm of Deutsche Bank, is not afraid to say: "Cash, I think, will probably not exist in 10 years. It is not something that is necessary, it is terribly inefficient and expensive. " But this speech recalls that of the death of the check, already announced for several decades. And yet, on average, the French make more than two checks a month. Cash, too, is likely to resist.A death programmed by banks and governmentsLike John Cryan, the big banks are pushing
to get money out of circulation. Beyond the risks of fraud, the management of species is expensive, very expensive. Since the late 1980s, vending machines (ATMs) have multiplied throughout the hexagon. In the face of 57 000 expensive ATMs to be supplied and maintained, French banks are now starting to backtrack. For Philippe Herlin, an economist specializing in payment methods and author of "The End of the Banks", "they have an interest in reducing the weight of the species because it costs them dearly (around 2.6 billion euros per Year) and does not pay them anything ". In particular, in the face of small traders who are traditional defenders of cash, one of the means remains to encourage them to abandon their use thanks to the reduction of the famous CIP (interbank payment commissions) on small amounts.
States, too, dream of the end of cash. Following the financial crisis of 2008, in a country where cash was king, the Greek government imposed a limit on the amount of weekly withdrawals and obliged traders to equip themselves with electronic payment terminals. As for the ECB, with the end of the issue of 500 euro notes by the end of 2018, it shows its willingness to fight organized crime. In France finally, it is now prohibited from 1 September 2015 to pay in cash purchases of more than 1 000 euros, a ceiling previously fixed at 3 000 euros.
The Gallic village of individuals still resistsAnd yet, cash has not yet said its last word. This is thanks to individuals, whose habits in terms of means of payment have a hard time, even if more than a third of Europeans and Americans would declare themselves happy to dispense with cash. According to an IFOP survey of 2016, the French still prefer the hard currency for a purchase of two. They particularly appreciate the ease of use, durability and safety. Anxious about bank card fraud, consumers consider liquid to be the cheapest way to pay. And above all, the ticket remains the symbol of an identity, be it regional, national or European, but also a freedom since it is still the only means of payment for the person who uses it.
Moreover, some countries are culturally attached to cash, like Germany. On the occasion of the announcement of the end of 500 euro notes, the regional daily Rheinische Post defended "Cash is freedom" while the popular German daily Bild argued "Touche pas à mon liquide". Similarly, some African and South American countries favor the use of cash in an environment of low banking, but also mobile payment, a market boosted by the success of actors such as Orange or M-Pesa.
The bank card will soon be removed from the list On the old continent, technological pressure and the emergence of new players such as Fintech are encouraging other payment practices. The mobile banks Revolut and N26 thus shake the traditional establishments, while the young French Lydia is rising among the most successful mobile payment applications currently.
The Gafa, too, very soon took to the niche by launching, among others, Apple Pay and Android Pay. Last October, it was the turn of the Central Bank of Ireland to give Facebook the status of payment service provider and electronic money issuer. These initiatives reflect the widespread movement of dematerialisation of payment methods, announcing the planned end of the good old physical bank card. The card networks have understood this, seeking to position themselves in the instant payment market. Visa launched its near-immediate cash transfer solution, Visa Direct, while MasterCard announced its takeover of the UK startup VocaLink, which has an instant payment platform. "In 2020, we hope that half of all Visa transactions will be done with a phone," said Conor Langford, vice president of Visa Ireland. When is the death certificate on the card? So yes, cash is doomed, eventually, to disappear. But there is no doubt that it will still be present the day of the next funeral of the plastic bank card.
[1] According to a survey published in April 2017 and conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Ezonomics website of the Dutch bank ING
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