Payments competition

Visa US. is taking the war on cash to the next level. In a new initiative to encourage businesses to go cashless, Visa will be awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible small business food service owners who commit to stop accepting cash.

Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB highlights the risks associated with a cashless society.

The overall shift towards digital money is slow and patchy. More importantly, it is widening the monetary divide between those who have access to an increasing range of digital forms money and those who remain financially excluded.

Many observers and payments experts have viewed mobile payments as the silver bullet to replace cash. Mobile handsets have become ubiquitous; the growth of m-commerce creates a natural market for m-payments; the handset can become a natural link between the physical and digital worlds. There are nonetheless several reasons why they are unlikely to replace cash.