DOT Desk: Rubina Yasmin, a Bangladeshi girl working in the University of Greenwich, a UK’s prestigious educational institution after completing her graduation course from the same university thinks cash is dying and nobody is concerned about it, reports The Daily Observer.
“Money is nothing but medium of exchange. People have reinvented the exchange of goods and services several times over the past millennia, moving from bartering to using coins and paper money and recently to digital payments. So, cashless society is a reality, not a dream”, she said.
Rubina along with her family members came recently in Dhaka after five years to meet her friends and relatives. Once habituated in cash transactions in Bangladesh, Yasmin can’t think to use cash in London as most shops and pubs refuse to accept cash payments.
“A big number of grocery stores, restaurants, shopping malls and even in sellers in Gausia market accept payments through bkash and plastic cards. All of my friends use cards or bKash, which I never thought five years back. It’s a revolution”, she told me.
“bKash, the leading mobile financial service (MFS) operator has taught people how digital payment is easy, quick and secure and Dutch Bangla Bank realized that the country is going to be a cashless society”, she admires.
Millions of people are using bKash and cards to buy foods in restaurants, shopping in superstores like Agora and Sanpno that I never thought before’, she said.
Rubina is right. Salesmen at Shopno, a chain superstore said more than 70 per cent payments are now being made through cards or bkash. Most banks have designed debit and credit cards to facilitate their customers the taste of digital transactions.
“It’s a new revolution to dump cash in mobile phones or cards to stop evading tax”, Yasmin, a student of business management said. “The global wave towards a cashless society has hit all over Bangladesh, so cash is dying here. In the coming days, it would be a less cash society at least”, she observed.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in a speech at the Singapore Fintech Festival last month said central banks should consider issuing digital currencies as money faces a “historic turning point.
With the growth of contactless payment systems, the spread of mobile technology and the establishment of open banking catalyzing faster development of digital payment infrastructure, use of cash is slowing. Some experts predict that cash payments will fall by as much as 50 per cent over the next 10 years.BBC in a report predicted that 95 per cent of all of the world’s money is saved digitally. With a boom in online shopping, that number is likely to increase.
In the UK, only 34 per cent of payments are now made in cash, according to UK Finance, and debit cards overtook cash as the most popular payment method for the first time in 2017. Meanwhile, in Sweden, cash accounts for just two per cent of the value of all transactions and is predicted to account for just half a per cent by 2020. The reason for less cash use is that digital payment gives customers many benefits and keeps their money secured from loss fraud or robbery.
“In South London the Crown and Anchor pub – a pub which used to be burgled on a regular basis. Fed up with this situation, Arber Rozhaja, owner of the pubrecently made the Crown and Anchora cashless pub”, Rubina Yasmin explained. ” Heanalysed the pub’s total revenue, found that only 10-13% of it was in cash, and – in October, instantly making it far less attractive to the local burglars”.
In the coming days, Yasmin said shops and pubs in Bangladesh like the Crown and Anchor of UK would simply prefer not to handle cash any more as their client base is young and comfortable with technology. The move will gain momentum thanks to QR technology adopted by bKash and other payment operators, she said.
“Cash is dying and people in Europe think it should die soon”, said Abul Hossain who recently settled himself in London after spending 15 years in European countries as a professional worker. ” In Europe, people are using less cash as they understand that cash is risky and costly. So, all over the western world banks are shutting down cash machines and branches”.
“Ask a Swedes, when they last paid for something in cash. The probable answer is last month or week. Digital payments via card or mobile apps are so common and trusted that many Swedes no longer carry cash”, Abul Hossain who frequently visits Sweden said.
In Asia, China is leapfrogging to mobile payments, with more than two-thirds of internet users using smartphones for payments. The South Korean central bank has been promoting the concept of a cashless society and plans to no longer mint coins by 2020. The Thai government has launched the National e-Payment Master Plan to promote digital payments. Indonesia is moving ahead with a different approach- a less cash society. The Indian government advocated for a cashless society during its demonetization drive of INR 500 and INR 1,000 banknotes.
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