News in Brief

Cash Use Rises in Latvia

Latvijas Bank reported that in February 2023 non-cash payments made up 67% of transactions with cash responsible for the rest. This data came from a population survey carried out by SIA Latvijas Fakti. The average number of payments per person per week was at a historical high of 14.3, up from 12.8 a year earlier.

The use of smartphones for payment has risen from 13% in 2022 to 16% in 2023. In 2019 the figure was 4%.

Access to cash remains good. Satisfaction with the ability to withdraw cash is unchanged at 84%, and only 9% were dissatisfied.

When asked whether the one and two cent coins should be withdrawn, those for the idea fell from 51% a year earlier to 41%. 50% were against the idea.

Awareness of a digital euro had grown 39% in February 2022 to 49% a year later. At the same time the public appears less interested in crypto assets. Awareness of the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc. was down 1% to 85%. The number of people who had bought a crypto asset halved to 4%. 11% had used their crypto assets to buy something. Awareness of the collapse of FTX was high, at 70%.

World Expo to Go Cashless

In 2025 Japan will host a World Expo expected to attract 28.2 million visitors over the six months it will run.

In a world first for an Expo of this size, the Osaka-Kansai Expo organisers are introducing a dedicated electronic money app and the event will be cashless. Visitors will also be able to pay by card, transportation IC cards or QR codes. People will be able to buy prepaid cards.

Nigerian E-Payments Rise Sharply

Whatever the courts may say, perhaps the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) changes to the naira are having the affect CBN wanted. E-payment transactions are reported to have risen by 46% in February compared with January, from 541.6 million naira to 787.9 million naira. This was also a 122% increase on a year previously. The newly designed N200, N500 and N1,000 notes were introduced on 15 December 2022.

A shortage of new notes meant that cash in circulation fell 29% in February compared with January, a 70% fall on a year earlier. It appears that Nigerians have switched to using electronic payments instead – so much so, that the digital banking network was reported to be overwhelmed as a flood of transactions shifted to the medium.

ACI Worldwide ranked Nigeria sixth in 2022 for real-time payment markets. Nigeria’s NIP system is an account-number based, online-real-time interbank payment solution that works for internet banking. bank branches, mobile apps, ATMs, point-of-sale devices, unstructured supplementary service data, kiosks and more.

Apart from NIP transactions, the number of mobile transfers increased by 70% between January and February. POS transactions rose by 18%. 99% of Nigerians now use digital channels such as banking aps and websites to make financial transactions.

This percentage makes the country have the highest usage when compared with other Middle East and African countries like Kenya (87%), Pakistan (66%), Jordan (53%), Morocco (34%) and Iraq (27%). Mastercard claim that consumers are now using mobile money for more than just transactions.

BNM Annual Report Shows Cash Growing Strongly

Malaysia’s currency in circulation grew by 8% to RM162.1 billion in 2022 compared with a record increase of 15.1% in 2021. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) attributed this to the public holding less cash for precautionary reasons as Malaysia transitioned out from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the continued acceleration of digital payments.

In 2022 BNM processed a total of 2.41 billion banknotes compared to 1.84 billion in 2021. BNM also registered four cash-in-transit (CIT) companies as currency processors.

BNM issued revised ‘Guidelines on Reproduction of Malaysian Currency Image’ and revised ‘Guidelines on Quality of Currency and Handling of Suspected Counterfeit Currency’. It strengthened the regulatory framework for currency management operations by issuing new requirements on financial institutions (FIs) and cash processors to observe the quality and integrity of currency, and manage their business, affairs and activities prudently, professionally and with integrity.

Access to Cash Withdrawn Down Under

Some ANZ branches in the Australian state of Victoria no longer allow cash withdrawal or deposits over the counter. In those branches cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals are possible from smart ATMs and coin deposit machines.

ANZ explained that they have experienced a 50% fall in branch transactions over the last four years. Only 8% of customers rely on branches for their needs. The Reserve Bank of Australia data shows that the use of cash for day-to-day payments fell to 27% by 2019 and by the end of 2022 was 13%. ATM withdrawals have fallen by 40%.

At the same time as this story hit the news in Australia, so did a story from July 2022 from Cairns where the Regional Council brought in a no-cash policy at all council facilities. This change has only now led to a reaction by the local population. An online petition has been started to get the policy reversed and will be debated by the Council.

Parking Problems in the UK

The UK media have been reporting on the widespread move by councils to install parking meters that can only be paid using an app. A tabloid newspaper commissioned a poll which found a widespread dislike of paying solely using apps.

Much of the opposition to the move is based on supporting shopping in person and the deterrent effect on people shopping in town centres, which are already suffering a sharp decline in footfall. Poor mobile internet coverage is an issue in many areas.

Councils say that the cost of handling cash, the need to protect ticket machines from thieves, a decline in the use of the machines means and the cost of upgrading them means that they are not viable. The carbon emissions related to cash collections have even been given as a reason for ending parking meters that accept cash.

In the survey 29% of people were somewhat or very uncomfortable using a parking payment app, 40% would be put off shopping in their local town centre if they had to use a parking app and 77% of people felt removing cash as an option discriminated against the old.