Cash is still a constant for US consumers — Glory — “84% of US consumers would still like the option to pay by cash while 63% feel it is the most secure way to pay… 61% of Americans trust cash more than mobile payments and 55% favor it over cards respectively. Convenience also plays a key role in consumers’ choice of payments, with 87% wanting the option to pay with cash in all transactions… 64% of consumers use cash the same amount or more than they did a year ago.”
Cash
Central Bank of Uruguay to run mobile currency pilot
Uruguayan central bank to test digital currency — Latin American Herald Tribune — “‘Instead of carrying around a leather wallet with paper currency,’ people will load electronic currency onto their mobile phones. ‘It’s not that you use the phone to order money transfers, as is done today, but having bills in the cellular and being able to pass them on from one user to another’… Digital bills will be used ‘exactly the same’ as paper bills.”
Chinese consumers ready to go out without cash
84% Chinese can go out without cash — Xinhua — “Asked whether they can go out of their home without cash, 84% said they are ‘calm’ with it while only 4% cannot and 12% feels concerned.”
Chinese banks roll out face recognition at the ATM
Facial recognition debuts at China’s banks — Xinhua News Agency — “At the Agricultural Bank of China’s (ABC) three outlets in Jinan City, cards are no longer needed to withdraw money. A quick scan of the face will do… Other banks, such as the China Merchants Bank and the Construction Bank of China, have also introduced similar technology in their ATMs.”
Standard Chartered turns merchants into ATMs
No ATM needed: Standard Chartered partners startup SoCash on 400 cash withdrawal points — The Straits Times — “Instead of having to look for an ATM, Standard Chartered Bank customers now have the option of getting cash through SoCash, which has been integrated into the SC Mobile app… They simply key in the amount they want to withdraw and collect the cash from any outlet of a participating merchant. Withdrawals can range anywhere from S$20 (US$14.84) to a maximum of S$500 (US$371.09) daily.”
Mastercard tests service that lets anyone collect cash from an ATM with just a mobile phone
ATM innovation for emergency assistance and merchant rebates — Mastercard — “There are situations when money needs to be sent and received as cash, particularly in emergency situations or when the recipient is unbanked. With Mastercard Cash Pick-Up, a bank can help an individual or company send money to anyone with a valid mobile phone number.”
Cashless society still far away for most European markets
Cashless society still far away for most European markets — GlobalData — “The closest market to the cashless ideal is Norway, where cash accounted for only 7% of all transactions in 2016 (down from 11% in 2011). The Scandinavian markets generally are the least reliant on cash in the region, with cash accounting for 18% of all transactions in Sweden in 2016, and 26% in Denmark… The most cash-dependent market in Europe is Italy, where cash accounted for 82% of all transactions in the market in 2016 (down from 88% in 2011).”
Amazon brings its cash deposit service for the underbanked to the UK
Amazon brings its cash deposit service for the underbanked to the UK — Techcrunch — “Amazon has added the ability for UK users to pay for products and services on its ecommerce platform using cash. The service, called Amazon Top Up, lets shoppers load between £5 and £250 into their Amazon UK account in a single top-up transaction.”
Macau’s ATMs are using facial recognition to help follow the money
Macau’s ATMs are using facial recognition to help follow the money — Bloomberg — “Chinese bettors withdrawing money from some ATMs in Macau need to do more than punch in their PIN code. They also have to stare into a camera for six seconds so facial-recognition software can verify their identity and help monitor transactions… China UnionPay Co’s network is the first to use the software, which will be installed in all the city’s 1,200 cash dispensers.”
English churches to trial contactless donations this summer ahead of wider roll out
Churchgoers in England will begin trialling contactless donations in 40 churches across the country this summer, as the Church of England announces plans to roll out contactless handheld terminals to process card payments for donations as a replacement for loose change... More
Rakbank is the first bank in the Middle East to introduce Samsung Pay solutions for its ATMs
Rakbank is the first bank in the Middle East to introduce Samsung Pay solutions for its ATMs — Rakbank — “This innovative digital solution enables the bank’s customers to make cardless cash withdrawals from Rakbank ATMs using their Samsung smartphones without the need for a physical debit or credit card. The Samsung Pay solution for ATMs is an end-to-end contactless process.”
US consumers turn to digital payments for online purchases
More than 70% of online shoppers across the US have used digital payment services including mobile wallets, one-click checkout buttons and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps, research released by American Express reveals, with 41% “always or sometimes” choosing to use digital solutions when they pay... More
Insights into the future of cash
Insights into the future of cash — Bank of England — “The value of Bank of England notes in circulation peaked in the run-up to Christmas 2016, reaching over £70bn for the first time — an increase of 10% on a year earlier. This is the fastest growth we’ve seen in a decade, and a giant leap compared to the £2.9bn when the ATM was born.”
Electronic money transactions are back to pre-demonetization levels
Electronic money transactions are back to pre-demonetization levels — Livemint — “To hasten India’s shift towards a cashless economy, the government has been aggressively pushing digital payments, which had gained momentum after demonetization. However, six months later, Indians seem to have gone back to their old ways of cash.”
Egypt: National Council for payments issues five important decisions
Egypt: National Council for payments issues five important decisions — MobileMoneyAfrica — “The National Council for Payments issued a number of important decisions, with the aim of transforming Egypt from a society that relies on cash to a cashless one.”
Debit cards set to overtake cash in 2018, three years earlier than expected
Debit cards set to overtake cash in 2018, three years earlier than expected — Payments UK — “Rapid growth in the use of contactless cards means cash will be overtaken as Britain’s most frequently used payment method by the end of 2018… By 2018, when debit cards are forecast to overtake cash, 13.4 billion debit card payments are predicted, of which 4.6 billion (or one in three) are expected to be contactless.”
Wells Fargo to add NFC mobile withdrawals to ATMs later this year
Customers of US bank Wells Fargo will be able to withdraw cash from ATMs using an NFC-based mobile payments service such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay when the bank rolls out an upgrade across the US “later this year”. More
Wells Fargo moves forward with ATM mobile withdrawal plans
US bank Wells Fargo will become the first in the country to upgrade its entire network of ATMs with mobile withdrawal functionality next week, as the bank prepares to roll out the service to 13,000 machines... More
Wearable payments platform to be tested on three continents
A digital cash service allowing consumers — including those without bank accounts — to load money onto a range of wearable items and make contactless payments in retail outlets will roll out across “eight or nine countries” in North America, Europe and Africa from April 2017... More
Millennials not giving up on cash and checks
Millennials have “one foot firmly planted in both the future and the past” when it comes to mobile payments, a study by Accel and Qualtrics says... More