Cash is the first step of financial inclusion

Since the beginning of the pandemic, a steady flow of disinformation has distorted the role cash may play in spreading Covid-19. Now, Australia’s national science agency has published a controversial study suggesting that the virus could survive up to 28 days on banknotes in strict laboratory conditions. However, the study’s lead author, confusingly, is minimizing the infection risk presented in his own work.

With the coronavirus pandemic moving past the six-month mark, one of the first notable side effects was a reduction in the use of physical greenbacks. The cash-out had several drivers: Most retail stores were closed or saw their operations greatly reduced, virtually all bars and restaurants that remained open could provide takeout service only, almost everyone who was able to began working from home, and online shopping from Amazon and other home-delivery options boomed.

According to the recently published Annual Report of the Reserve Bank of India, cash in circulation grew by 14.7% in value and 6.6% in volume between March 2020 and March 2019.

For countries emerging from conflict like Ethiopia, digital payment systems are a tempting way to extend control over the people. Do Ethiopians want their government to have complete and absolute control over every financial transaction they make or would they prefer to retain the financial resilience, privacy, freedom from exploitation, and protection from poor governance which cash offers them?

Despite the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic, the payment system has weathered the storm; no systemic outages of core payments infrastructure have been reported. Payments systems - cash and non-cash - have proved resilient and robust and have continued to enjoy trust from the general public.

Disaster Management Consultant and Epidemiologist, James Shepherd-Barron, shares why advising low-income societies to use contact-less electronic payments instead of cash as a Covid-19 control measure is likely to negatively affect health outcomes over the longer term.

Antony Harris of Crane Payment Innovations explains why being a Dactylochrematophobia – someone afraid of handling cash – is concerning for society and what alternatives can be looked at in facing this fear.

Groups representing the currency, ATM, transportation and security sectors call on governments, central banks, media, business and society to stand up for cash.

Indian Bank launches a mobile ATM service for safe and accessible cash withdrawal.

According to consumer Association, Which? the closure of ATMs have saved UK banks £120 million in ATM interchange fees and cost consumers £104 million in surcharging.

Financial inclusion programmes play an increasingly important part in international development but two researchers find that the effects on economic poverty are small and inconsistent.

Digital payments are gaining traction in the Philippines and the central bank is promoting digital payments to further inclusive economic growth. Cash is growing fast, providing an infrastructure that is both inclusive and resilient to crises, a strong priority for this disaster-prone country.