From The Telegraph, August 28:
Switch to plastic pushes cash use down 40pc since the pandemic
The chief of the UK’s largest ATM network has warned that cash has as little as five years left, as the country’s infrastructure experiences “death by a thousand cuts”.
“The cost of providing cash infrastructure, which includes the ATMs, security and bulk cash centres is huge at £5bn a year,” said John Howells, chief executive at Link. Many of these costs are fixed and will not change as consumers move to digital payments.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, “cash use is down by 40pc – and is still falling,” he added. A recent report from UK Finance, the banking trade body, estimates that just one in every 20 transactions will be made using cash by 2031.
“This infrastructure will start to fall apart unless something is done, and we are already seeing ATMs and branches closing at a worrying rate,” said Mr Howells. “Our cash infrastructure is experiencing death by a thousand cuts.”
An estimated five million people who rely on cash – many in rural locations or less well off – are at risk of being left behind unless more is done to help them adapt to digital, Mr Howells said.
“We have 5-10 years to fix digital payments before cash becomes unworkable, and need to start planning how to get the new system working for all.”
Link runs the UK’s network of around 54,000 cash machines and works with almost all UK banks and card issuers.....
....MUCH MORE
