Global Payments Report 2021: Cash has fallen by 42% in 4 years

Reduction in the use of cash globally over the past three years? 32%. Over the past 4 years? 42%. Growth of ecommerce over the past year? Plus 19%, a record in the last 5 years, with 52% of purchases made via digital wallet. These are the first data from the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2021 which examines current and future payment trends in 41 countries and which predicts how several European countries, including Denmark, Norway and Sweden, could be close to zero cash by 2024, with the 0.4% of transactions paid in cash, down from 15.2% in 2019 and 8.8% last year. Furthermore, the growth of non-cash payment methods will be mainly split between cards and mobile payments for at least one third of the market. Pete Wickes, CEO, EMEA, Worldpay, says, “This research shows the speed and scale of transforming consumer behavior in just 12 months. While this opens up new opportunities for companies to optimize and promote efficiency, we must be aware that important parts of the economy continue to rely on cash. FinTech companies and regulators must work together to build new structures that allow technology to be used to promote financial inclusion ”. According to the report, only 7% of in-store purchases in the UK could be made in cash by 2024, after the coronavirus pandemic fueled the shift to cards and mobile payments. While cash accounted for 27% of in-store transactions in 2019, the latest report reveals how the percentage has dropped to 13% and will continue to decline over the next three years. Consumers and businesses were already moving away from cash payments before the pandemic hit, but early concerns that Covid-19 could spread across surfaces led some businesses to accelerate the shift to contactless payment methods. The report states that by 2024 mobile is expected to represent a third of payments. In our country the limit on cash payments in 2021, just as in 2020 it remains set at 2,000 euros. The limit for cash transactions was introduced by the tax decree linked to the 2020 Budget Law, and will drop further from 1 January 2022, when the new maximum threshold will be set at 1,000 euros. The goal is to combat tax evasion and is part of the Italia Cashless plan which also includes the much discussed phenomenon of state cashback. According to the Bank of Italy, as regards the use of cash in our country, the data show that payments with POS total 230 billion euros, while cash payments 550 billion euros, an almost double figure. The Italia Eurispes 2021 report explains: “It is true that, if digital payments were to increase in Italy and cash-settled transactions decreased, the incidence of the underground economy and VAT evaded compared to GDP would be reduced, reaching values, respectively, between 11.8% and 8.8% and 1.6% and 0.4%. Thanks to these reductions, between a minimum of 11.3 billion euro and a maximum of 63.5 billion euro of the underground economy and between 6 billion euro and 28 billion euro of VAT evaded would be recovered ”.