Rapid technology advances continue to expand the wealth of digital and card payment options open to consumers and businesses. Despite their widely appreciated advantages, people in most countries remain wedded to cash.
Around 60% of consumers in the euro area, for example, say they value the option of using cash as “very or fairly important” – something that shows in their spending habits: cash is still the most frequently used method of payment at the point of sale, changing hands in 59% of transactions.1 Consumers consistently say that they count on cash’s widespread acceptability, ease of use, security features, and transaction anonymity. Cash also provides individuals and households – and even some businesses – with a clear overview of their expenditure.
Cash has resilience as a payment mechanism during crises, whether these are man-made or natural. There were widespread payment system failures globally, for example, as a result of the Microsoft outage in July 2024. And natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, can knock out important parts of the payments infrastructure.
Social inclusion is another compelling reason to retain cash as part of the payments ecosystem. In the US, data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation2 shows that around 4.5% of US households (or approximately six million households) lack an account with any bank or credit union, and Black and Hispanic households are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be unbanked.