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Kudrnova, Kristyna - 513400 - Final Project Thesis
Kudrnova, Kristyna - 513400 - Final Project Thesis
Kudrnova, Kristyna - 513400 - Final Project Thesis
Thesis
By
Kristýna Kudrnová
Bachelor of Science
In
Business Administration
2019
was written by myself independently, using the sources and information listed in the list
of references. I am aware that my work will be published in accordance with § 47b of Act
No. 111/1998 Coll., On Higher Education Institutions, as amended, and in accordance
with the valid publication guidelines for university graduate theses.
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 5
5 CRIME .............................................................................................................. 40
5.1 Cash – the fuel for criminals ................................................................................ 40
7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 49
References .............................................................................................................. 51
Abstract
This study is an exploration of the main benefits and drawbacks of the cashless society,
the world without physical currency, offering only electronic methods of payment. The
way people pay for their purchases has changed considerably since the introduction of
credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallets. The first part of this study presents the
evolution of money so that the reader can better understand its further development. Then,
the study researches the advantages and disadvantages of becoming cashless regarding
governments, individuals, and banks individually. The first discusses how effective the
fight against cash is on tax evasion and illegal immigration, issues that the governments
are unable to tackle. For the individuals, the chapter considers whether the convenience
of usage compensates for the loss of privacy and choice. Banks, the major beneficiaries,
could gain a monopoly power over the money market highly supported by individuals’
discussed. This last chapter examines whether the move towards electronic payments
decreases or increases criminality among people. Even though such a society brings more
benefits to some than the others, it is the authorities’ decision if the cash will be phased
out, reduced, or left untouched. Therefore, this study attempts to serve as a source of
information for people to become more knowledgeable and prepared for what may come.
1 INTRODUCTION
Cash – the physical money consisting of banknotes and coins– is mostly taken for granted.
Even though the number of people using digital methods of payments is rapidly
increasing in the modern era, the majority of the population is still carrying at least some
cash in their wallets. Continuous cash usage does not change the fact that the society sees
more and more people every day in the coffee line, solely conveniently approximating
the small plastic card to the payment terminal instead of seeking the coins in their pocket
or searching the wallet in their bags. Some may see it only as a next step in a society’s
development caused by enormous global technological boom. However, with the cash
still in the circulation, it is consumer’s free choice to use paper money and coins or the
card, and alternatively different digital methods of payment, to complete the purchase and
transfer the money to the seller. It is about consumers’ personal preferences but also their
awareness of the benefits and drawback of both of them – cash or a digital payment.
“Cashless society” therefore means the world without cash in the circulation. It introduces
the world where the consumers would have all of the savings deposited in the bank, not
The intent of this research paper is to examine if the benefits of implementing “cashless
society” and abolishing cash prevail over the drawbacks and how would the
implementation influence different groups of people and organizations. The paper will
mainly focus on the effect on governments, banks, and individual consumers, if the
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benefits and drawbacks are equally spread within the society. Even though the knowledge
about the existence of credit cards and cash machines has been revealed to the consumers
already around 50 years ago, the current huge interest in the topic brought several
attempts of different countries to reduce the cash in the circulation, such as Sweden, and
India. It is important to notice that moving towards cashless is daily changing and very
development in recent years, it is unprobeable that the move towards cashless will cease,
which makes this topic highly relevant. The topic is not fully developed, and no one can
properly estimate if the world without cash would really work the way the experts claim
it would. Referring to the countries that have already started moving toward the less-cash
or cashless living will give clear clues indicating how would such society look like.
The purpose of this study is to critically address what follows the phenomenon of
removing cash in the society, adding new insights and ideas. Niklas Arvidsson (2017), an
researches on the cashless society and mobile payments especially in Sweden, claims that
towards cashless world. Also, the professor says it is important to realize what the move
to less cash means for different actors (Arvidsson, 2017). One can use the knowledge
gained from this study to better understand the trend, how the change can be proceeded
and how to adapt easily to such shift. Also, the authorities can draw another point of view
from this study. The picture they obtain can be useful for the consideration of the
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necessary steps they should make in order to implement “less cash” or “cashless” society
without issues, to use the advantages of the move and eliminate the disadvantages.
Similarly to the majority of industries, financial and banking industry are going through
development and consequent changes. That is why going cashless could be seen as the
next step in the evolution of money, which went from barter through coins, later paper
money and current digital payments. It brings the number of benefits, from which the
reduction of tax evasion, hidden economy, the cost of handling cash, and crime seem like
the most alarming. They are the issues that the government is unsuccessful to address for
decades and that the reduction or the abolition of cash as a whole could help. The better
transactions, could increase the efficiency of governments and banks and decrease the
wrongdoing in the world, promote equality and justice. As Wright (2016) claims, cash is
a perfect tool for criminals – liquid anonymous, untraceable, fuel driving criminality,
vulnerable to counterfeiters and thieves. While the governments and banks are pleased
by the idea, and they are right to do so as the benefits are crucial for the modern era, not
all of the individual consumers see it the same way. They doubt that such society would
put them into advantage the same way as it would benefit already mentioned institutions.
They are being said that the digital payments are designed for consumers’ convenience,
but the great amount of population do not feel convenient using the internet, through
which the internet banking works. Only in the UK, nine percent of the population has
never used the internet (Clark, 2017, p. 44). Not only could that be caused by their
unwillingness to use it but also due to the poor internet connection in the region where
they live. For some people, the abolition of cash would have an adverse effect than it is
claimed by authorities and “cashless” supporters. Thus, both sides, the positive and the
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negative one must be properly assessed, the costs weighted, in order to see where the
In the first part, the study will focus on the historical perspective of money evolution. It
will give the readers the necessary overview in order to better understand the further
development of the study. The evolution of physical money and banking will be
presented. In the second part, the study will aim to properly address and assess the number
of benefits and drawbacks, which would become real in case the cash stops flowing. The
After, another important controversy, the description of crime in the era of physical
money and the potential threat of cybercrime in the “cashless society” will be analyzed.
Throughout the study, different cases will be investigated to see what the world can learn
from them. All of the cases chosen have its purpose as all of them approach “cashless”
differently and therefore, they are covering the great range of the advantages and
disadvantages that would the reduction of cash bring. Based on the exploration of these
cases, the study will suggest how should the society prepare for the reduction of cash in
order to adapt smoothly in case it really takes place. The suggestions should ensure that
everyone is prepared for this next step in the evolution and no individual is left behind.
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2 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
This chapter neither serves to simply narrate the history of the evolution of the money
nor to present any specific details. The main aim is to give a reader an overview so that
he/she can better understand the issues that will be discussed later in this study. Money is
something that every individual need in order to survive. Davies (2002) defines money
as “an institution that is widely used for making payments and accounting for debts and
credits” (p. 28). In simple words, it is a medium of exchange. Following Federal Reserve
Bank of St. Louis (n.d.), money has three functions, which could be used to define the
term as well: store the value, being a unit of account, and, similarly as Davis (2002, p.
28) claims, being a medium of exchange. It is needed in order to exchange it for and
satisfy individual’s needs, such as water, food, and living (sleep), but also wants. With
the money system the society knows now, it is relatively easy as the official currencies
Banknotes and coins have not served to the consumers since always. They later replaced
the initial mean of exchange – barter. Barter is an act which consists of goods or services
exchange between traders. Its disadvantage lied especially in the fact that it was
must be a “double coincidence” in order to make the barter between individuals happen.
The individual who wants to trade his/her cows for chickens firstly has to find the
individual who has the chicken but secondly, he/she had to find someone who wants to
trade those chickens for cows, which the first individual is offering. Without such match,
the trade could not occur. The civilizations realized that such method of exchanging good
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is extremely inefficient and came with commodity money, which possessed generally
accepted value of goods (Davies, 2002). Because of the high demand for the goods that
served as a commodity money, they could have been used as a currency. The commodity
money was needed not only to have a standardized measure to facilitate barter between
two individuals but also to have a mean to compensate, for example, a father giving the
The development of money went from commodity through several primitive forms of
money, such as cowry shells in Africa, wampum, strings of beads, of North America or
disc-shaped stones on the Pacific island Yap, and many other objects were commonly
used as a payment (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, n.d.). This confirms that no
definition, but the function of money is the important factor. It does not matter which
What was perceived as the trade facilitators as well as the intruder of bureaucratical
control was brought by the introduction of first real coins, with a standardized values,
around 640 B.C. in Lydia, quickly spread to Persia, ancient Greece, where the production
of gold, silver, bronze, and later copper, zinc, nickel, metal coins started in Athens
(Chavas & Bromley, 1954). The minting of coins later spread to Europe, and the coins
Even though the coins first seemed like the convenient medium of exchange, trading
partners later discovered that the weight when exchanging large sums is intractable. That
is the period when the idea of paper money was born. In 1295, merchants were
encouraged to start using bills of exchange, which facilitated them to trade on a long
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emerging economic giant, China, is the country that started with the usage of banknotes
as the first one in about AD 960 (Davies, 2002) due to the lack of copper necessary for
copper mining. Later on, bankers got the idea of issuing paper notes as the confirmation
that the customer deposited gold, silver or jewelry to the bank. These notes became
accepted by people as a medium of exchange and paper money were finally born.
In order to equalize the value of different currencies, they were commonly backed by
gold. This phenomenon, as well called “gold standard”, ensures that the money is fixed
to a specific amount of the precious metal. Although the system appeared being stable as
a whole, it was destroyed by the need of governments to finance the World War I (Rogoff,
2016, p. 28) and eventually huge inflation caused by the massive money printing. The
attempts to restore the system after the period of wars were all unsuccessful, which led to
the conference at Bretton Woods, which was held in America in 1944 as World War II
was ending and the allies realized that a new global financial system would be required.
The authorities discussed how to reboot the economy and fix the exchange rates again
after the devastating period full of cruelty. The proposal of one international currency
was rejected by the USA who wanted to become part of the world with the most
influencing currency. The conference resulted in the decision of the American dollar
being linked to gold and other world currencies being linked to the dollar (Robertson,
2007). The regime agreed on the conference at Bretton Woods worked until 1973 when
the relationship between the dollar and gold has been erased (Rogoff, 2016, p. 30). In
other words, the currencies were left with no intrinsic value and started to flow against
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There are three crucial points regarding the currency emerging. First, the medium of
exchange is anything but stable. Not only it acquired the great number of forms
throughout history, but the better and more convenient solution always wins. Second, the
technological development of the society is important for the evolution as it prevents the
production of counterfeited both coins and paper currency. However, as Rogoff (2016)
claims, the fraudsters eventually find the back door of the technology, which created the
need for new invention to defeat imitated money. And finally, throughout each step in the
evolution of money, the crucial role played the trust and faith of people put in the actual
medium of exchange and their willingness to accept it. The distrust of the public could
disregard the currency. The transitions did not happen overnight as they were slowly
developing together with the evolving technological progress and innovations. In other
words, the longer transitional period let the public to get used to something different and
did not betray their trust in the current system. How to correctly include the public into
new system is an important topic and the authorities should keep it in their minds when
The invention of banking preceded that of coinage. Even though the first commercial
banking emerged in Italy in the 12th century, first sights of lending money appeared
already around 2000 B.C. in Babylon (Roussakis, 1997). The loans were made especially
by the priests in the temples as they recognized the demand for the stored gold could be
higher among some individuals while others do not need it at the time. Traditional
banking was initiated through the concept of safe deposits of, for example, already
mentioned gold, silver, jewelry. The first central bank was established in 1694 as a private
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entity of one London businessmen who offered a deal to King William III who
desperately needed more money to fight the war with France (Robertson, 2007). The bank
was established based on the trust of the owner of the bank that King William will pay
the interest. The idea of unlimited money incentivized the king to borrow more and the
bank to print more of the banknotes, which led to huge inflation. The private entity has
been nationalized in 1946. The evolution continued through the first credit card in 1950,
first cash machine in London in 1967, the rise of online banking in 1980, the launch of
the cryptocurrency, which received a lot of public attention as a first one, and the start of
mobile wallets just recently (UBS, 2018). Such development prompts the idea that the
evolution and innovations within the financial industry are natural and cash an
In the modern banks, the fact that customer deposit money to the bank does not mean that
all of the amount is physically stored in the institution. It means that the person is basically
lending money to the bank, which can forward it in a form of a loan to another customer,
collecting interest for that. The customer is allowed to withdraw his/her savings at any
time. This sounds like a perfect deal for both – the customer can have money safely
hidden while the bank can make profits, as the purpose of any business states. This is true
until the bank collapses, for example in the USA in 2008 due to the enormous number of
emergencies. The world has learned few times in the history already that cash is still the
king during the crisis (UBS, 2018). But what if cash does not exist? The next chapter of
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3 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
The world is moving towards electronic payments, such as debit and credit cards, mobile
wallets, mobile apps, while the usage of cash is decreasing, especially in developed
countries. Even though the term “cashless” is pretty new, the research by ING (2017)
shows that already 21% of Europeans rarely carry cash in their wallets. However, the
cashless (ING,2017). The reluctance to abandon cash completely is created also by the
fact that people still feel convenient to use cash for small transactions. This means, they
do not carry large-denomination notes with them but only small ones for low-value
purchases. ING survey (2017) confirms that 67% of people in Europe still pay their
snacks, lunches and coffee using cash. Additionally, it is clear that there are huge
discrepancies between different cultures. For example, French people are more oriented
to less cash in their wallets than Germans. The figure 1 shows that in Germany 51.3% of
purchases are still cash made. The other 48.7% of purchases are cashless, made usually
by debit or credit cards. As Germany is considered as one of the most developed countries
of Europe, the number of cashless transactions is pretty low. Sweden is the Europe’s
extreme, using cash only at around 13% of transactions (Cerulus & Contiglulia, 2018).
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Figure 1. Cash and cashless proportion in Germany, source: Korella (2017)
But what more, there are also huge distinctions between individuals in developed and
developing economies. Nowadays, some individuals cannot even imagine living without
a credit card anymore while others do not have the possibility to create a bank account.
According to The World Bank report, around 1.7 billion of adults around the world
neither use an account with any financial institution nor they have the possibility to pay
through mobile money provider. The Figure 2 shows that within that number, 80% of
while only 22% claimed so in low-income economies (The World Bank, 2017). Thus, it
is interesting that besides Scandinavia, the majority of countries with an incentive to shift
towards “cashless society” belongs to the group of developing countries, where the
inclusion of people into the system is much more difficult, problematic, and ultimately
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Figure 2. Credit card usage, source: Global Findex Database (2017)
Still, the governments of such countries repeat that the world without cash would serve
mainly for the financial inclusion of unbanked people and the ease of payment usage.
Even the individuals from developed countries would face the challenges in the world
without cash. The society without paper money brings a huge threat of the individuals’
privacy because every transaction is transparent and traceable. Thus, the benefits to
individuals arising from “cashless society” are questionable, which confirms the fact that
the demand for cash is on rise. According to the research conducted by the Deutsche
Bank, the demand for Euro cash is increasing and the amount in the circulation was 3
times as much in 2016 as in 2003 (Mai, 2016). Currently, it counts for $4.200 per capita
in the USA and $3.400 in the Eurozone, as per the Figure 3 (Rogoff, 2016, p. 40). It is
highly unprobeable that every woman, man, and child in the USA own $4.200 in cash.
Even more interesting part is that the majority of the amount is held in large-denomination
notes, more specifically the equivalent of $50 and larger, which an ordinary citizen does
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not carry very often. The data from 2015 shows that in the USA, large-denomination
notes create 84% of all paper money while in Eurozone 90% (Rogoff, 2016, p. 39). The
rise of cash appears even though the enormous number of alternative payment methods
provided.
On the other hand, transparency brought by phasing out the cash could possibly help the
governments to collect taxes and decrease the tax evasions, which is inefficiently tackled
in the world with anonymous and untraceable cash. In other words, the governments
would have better control, over the businesses, individuals, and the economy as a whole.
The banks could be important beneficiaries as well especially because their main
competitor, cash, would be eliminated. In the following chapters, the advantages and
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3.1 Why governments are in favor
As discussed before, paper money is anonymous and untraceable. It does not bear the
name of the user, the address or any other sign, which would allow authorities to identify
the person if needed. As the money flow cannot be controlled, it incentivizes some
businesses or individuals not to comply with their responsibility of paying taxes to the
state where they belong. And when these individuals do not pay the tax on their incomes,
someone else needs to pay what the government needs. In this case, it would be a
trustworthy citizen bearing the burden. These businesses and individuals could be divided
into 3 groups. One which escapes the tax collection on purpose, hiding an enormous
amount of money by not reporting the income and hoping no one will ever find it out,
also known as the hidden or shadowed economy. The second one would be the one where
the net revenues are underreported. The third one, however, would be the one which may
not even realize that the specific amount of the money they are dealing with should be
taken by the state. To make a specific example, think about the mother hiring a friend as
a babysitter and paying in cash. The similar example would be a student hiring someone
for tutoring. Neither of them will most probably pay a fraction to the state. Sum all of
“Tax gap” is defined as the difference between the taxes which were paid and taxes which
are still due. This is a gross “tax gap”. The net “tax gap” is the one that will, as per the
estimates, never be recovered (IRS, 2018). Internal Revenue Service published the federal
tax compliance research of “tax gap” for 2008-2010 in the USA. It estimated the gross
tax gap to be $458 billion and the recovery only $52 billion, resulting in $406 billion net
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tax gap (IRS, 2016). The quantity of people in Europe escaping their tax responsibilities
is even larger, creating the tax gap of $1 trillion or higher (Rogoff, 2016, p.66). This
should not be much of surprise considering higher tax rates in Europe, which put more of
the burden to the individuals and increases their encouragement to escape it. One may
argue that even if the abolition of cash would help to fight the tax evasion, there would
still be the issue of tax heavens. However, professor Gabriel Zucman (2015) in his book
“The Hidden Wealth of Nations” says that taxes escaped through the tax heavens are only
a fraction of what really is missing in the governments’ funds. He claims that the loss is
around $78 billion for Europe and $35 billion for the USA. When the numbers by Zucman
are compared with the previous numbers by IRS, it is clear that the tax evasion not
And so, one of the main arguments why governments are in favor of cashless system is
that it helps collect more on the taxes or at least to be able to track the businesses and
individuals, which do not comply with their responsibility. The reasoning for their
argument is that the online transactions bring the transparency to the whole payment
system. Such transparency gives the governments the ability to control the money
movement. Many national governments, such as France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and
Poland already took the measures to reduce the “tax gap” and many other issues by
out with an EU-wide level policy (EC, 2017). However, this limit might not be sufficient
as many of tax evasion cases concern small amounts, lower than the limit of those
countries. Also, EC argues that there are large tax evasion schemes, which did not depend
on cash usage (2017). This means they claim that the tax evasion does not depend mainly
19
on the presence of cash but on other elements such as the quality of institutions in charge
or existing regulations and policies. The research by Deutsche Bank develops this by
saying that the cash usage might facilitate the tax evasion but definitely is not the reason
that people are trying to avoid their responsibility towards the state. It adds that the
citizens’ willingness to pay taxes depends on their relationship with the state (Mai, 2016).
In other words, citizens are more likely to comply with tax responsibilities when they see
that the state is developing for the money they give to the national funds, that they get
better public services for themselves and their families, that the money is simply not
disappearing. Even in Sweden, the country where the cash is constantly decreasing, and
the government is trying to create first cashless society in the world, 88% of people
claimed they put high trust in cash (Arvidsson, 2017). However, the decreasing cash
usage indicates that Swedes also believe in their institutions and the correctness of their
The paper by Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (Archord et al., 2017) presents the idea
that no clear connection between the cash usage and the tax evasion and therefore shady
economy exists, but it would be foolish to say that it does not exist. Mai (2016) says that
it is not the rule that the high level of cash usage correlates with the size of the shadow
economy. For instance, in Germany and Austria where cash is still popular among people,
the shadow economy is small. As mentioned already, the reason that people believe that
phasing out paper currency is crucial for the tax collection is that it brings the
transparency, the ability for the governments to see every transaction made. The
government would have the possibility to investigate any tax discrepancy. Transparency
is a popular phenomenon lately, both corporations and governments are forced to disclose
their information, books of account, salaries. The fact is that such disclosure is not really
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working as a society would have wished. Jesse Eisinger (2015) states that sometimes it
service,” which are usually so long that every user clicks the “I agree” box without
actually reading it. If cash is phased out, the governments could have the possibility to
see the transactions without actually seeing it. Especially with the complex transactions,
it can be hard for the governments to track it. Every cashless society’s supporter is
repeating the transparency argument all over again, but no one can know for sure if such
a trend would really decrease the tax evasion numbers. Mai concludes that cash does not
directly influence the size of the shadow economy, but it would make it harder and more
expensive to participate in illegal activities, which could decrease the size of shadow
economy (Mai, 2016). And lastly, the governments are pushing the reduction or abolition
of cash policies in order to lower the tax gap while tolerating and granting huge tax
exemptions to large and powerful corporations, which are also much smarter at
innovating how to evade taxes than individuals. The tax evasion by corporations hurt the
economy more than the small amount evasions by individuals possibly caused by the
existence of cash. Clark (2017) shares his thought that what the cashless society really
does is that it facilitates the movement of the money from point A to point B. According
to him, this acceleration, the ability to move the incomes fast around the world without
anyone noticing it, prompts tax avoidance more than the cash-usage.
While it is not sure that the transparency possibly brought by the cashless society would
necessarily help the government to collect more taxes, it is highly probable that abolishing
the cash would help with the illegal immigrants in the countries. There were 11.3 million
illegal immigrants in the USA in 2013, which makes it 3.5 % of the whole population
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(Passel, Cohn, Krogstad, & Gonzales-Barrera, 2014). The president’s Trump goal to build
the wall between the USA and Mexico in order to stop the illegal immigrants seems much
more struggle than the abolition of cash in the economy. The reason why illegal
immigrants can survive in the countries is that the employers can pay them off the books,
which also enables them to exploit their employees easily. Cash facilitates practices
(Kornberg, 2017). The employers do not report their employees, neither pay taxes for
them. These employers make their firms more competitive and disadvantage other
businesses hiring only legal workers and properly paying for them. In other words, the
employer paying off books can offer the worker more on the paycheck as the tax and
The lack of cash would leave the illegal immigrants and their employers without some
possibilities that the existence of cash offers them. It would become difficult for
employers to pay their cheap labor as illegal immigrants are unable to open the bank
accounts (Archord et al., 2017). Not totally impossible thanks to tools such as prepaid
cards but difficult and risky for both the employer and employee. Besides leaving illegal
citizens without money, the abolition of cash would also spoil their ability to cross the
borders by paying the smugglers to bring them. Rogoff (2016) comments that this has
nothing to do with the legal migration of poor people into advanced economies, which he
is in favor of. He recognizes the issue of world’s inequality as well as the fact that some
places or even whole countries could become unsuitable for living with a rapidly
changing climate. He thinks that the countries’ abilities to deal with illegal immigration
policies. As presented above, even with the rising number of electronic methods of
22
payment, the demand for cash is increasing. The demand of illegal immigrants for paper
money is high on the list and increases the demand for cash a lot.
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3.2 The opposition of individual consumers
It was shown why some governments are trying to enforce society with no cash. But it is
clear that a very important part, in order for such society to function well, is the
acceptance of ordinary people. The main benefit presented to them is the convenience of
usage. No heavy wallets stuffed with paper money and coins, no counting, no dirty money
transmitting bacteria quickly, only simple plastic card or mobile app to pay for any
purchase. One could presume that it is a win-win situation but a problem occurs. It does
not necessarily need to be convenient for all of the people, especially the unbanked ones.
In other words, people who are not using the bank account would probably have issues
with adapting to the cashless system. Even if the government interferes with a solution
such as the provisioning of subsidies to increase financial inclusion, there is more. First,
the customers lose their privacy – the authorities would be easily able to follow the
trajectory of the card or mobile app with which the consumer is paying. Second, they lose
their choice. One thing is to pay by credit card because it is the preferred method of
payment for the customer and the other is to pay by credit card because the customer does
not have other option. In the world where cash still plays a role, the governments and
banks must be moderate with the policies and statements they are publishing because they
still need the popularity among people. If they make the usage of credit card or mobile
wallet unattractive, the clients will simply leave their banks by withdrawing all the money
3.2.1 Convenience
Coming to the grocery store, paying with a high-denomination note and confronting the
issue of the cashier not having smaller notes or coins to return back to the customer is
24
impossible in the society with plastic debit or credit cards. These cards have the ability to
pay for the specific and exact amount. When sharing a taxi with few friends, cash plays
a role as everyone can pay their fraction. When purchasing a new car, it is easier for the
customer to pay from an account than carrying the large sum of cash in the suitcase. While
travelling, the owners of the credit or debit card do not need to care about exchanging
money and they just withdraw the suitable currency from an ATM in the destination. On
the other hand, it might be more convenient for the person to use cash when buying a
It would be wrong to say that one payment method is more convenient over the other.
Card is most probably safer for the individuals, as they do not carry an amount that can
be easily stolen with them. In case the card is stolen, it can be blocked through the bank
within few minutes. However, as per the study, the customers really are choosing their
preferred method to pay based on convenience, rather than other factors such as security
(Mai, 2016). In some cases, it is cash, and in some cases, they opt for an electronic
purchase. The cash supporters are usually presenting the convenience as the main benefit
for individuals even though it might be really inconvenient for them when one of the
payment options often used is taken away. As mentioned already, 1.7 billion people
around the world still do not use any account or mobile app to pay their purchases. This
means, their payments occur only with cash (The World Bank, 2017). For these people,
The article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union says that
everyone has the right to respect for private and family life. The article 8 mentions the
25
right to protection of an individual’s personal data (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
EU, 2000). The banks and other payment service providers with whom people have
accounts with, collect clients’ personal data and the information about every transaction
the clients make with the credit/debit card or mobile app, e-wallet, their salaries,
expenses, and more. They, of course, do that with the consent of the clients, which is one
of the conditions to create an account. However, the data must be processed as per the
regulations these service providers have (Ecorys, CEPS, 2017). This means that they shall
not use the data for purposes different than specified in the contract with the client and
outside of his or her consent. The misuse of such data has been observed in plenty of
cases. The EC paper (2017) mentions the case of Greek consumers who have been
harassed by debt collecting companies in order to collect the money they loaned. And a
dispute occurs. On one hand, the consumers clearly did not comply with their debt paying
responsibility. On the other hand, the information about the loan was shared to the debt
collecting companies without the consent of the consumers. The share of personal data of
the consumers violated the article 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The EC paper (2017) notices another misuse of collected data and that is the usage of the
data for marketing purposes. In the world where everyone would pay in cash at the stores,
the retailers have no chance to track such purchases, they cannot see where the customer
lives, what is the last time he or she entered the store and how often he/she is shopping.
They cannot collect any data on the customers’ shopping habits. The only way to collect
such data, in order to be better at targeted marketing, was through surveys, subscriptions,
and other subjective data collection methods. But nowadays, when the usage of electronic
payment methods is increasing, the businesses such as Visa, Mastercard, and American
26
enter the data they are collecting (Clark, 2017, p.129). Like this, they are able to convert
their blindness, subjective surveys, and tough guessing into a detailed scheme on their
clients’ spending habits while making sure that the right client is always being offered
the product or service they want. The anonymous cash is still a solution for the consumer
who is aware of the data collection and wants to do something about it. Even if having
the account where the money is stored, the marketing influence can be decreased simply
by withdrawing money. This option would not exist in society without cash. “Money is
coined liberty,” is the quote that Dostoyevsky (1860-62) used in his book “The House of
the Dead” and is quite relevant in this case because paper money ensures the liberty of a
human by being anonymous and untraceable. The electronic version of money, tracking
every money transfer and leaving a significant trail, presents a threat to humans’ privacy.
That society without cash leaves people without a choice is one of the weaker arguments
of the cashless opponents. Clark says (2017, p.27) that there is nothing wrong with using
electronic methods of payment when people choose to pay like that. Until we have the
free choice to use in the liquor store cash or card, it is fine. The liquor store is, in fact, a
place handling a lot of cash (Epstein, 2017). This means that even though buying alcohol
is not against the law in almost all of the countries, many people prefer to use anonymous
paper money. Clark (2017) does not agree with the government taking one of the options
from us. However, it would not happen for the first time in history. The anti-cash lobby
would answer that the slow movement from cash to credit cards is just a part of the
exchange and went from the barter through commodity money to paper money. With the
buyer had in their hands and did not intervene in any of the categories above. They were
different, collecting customer’s sensitive data, tracking his or her purchases and therefore,
intervening the fundamental right of the person, like the right to privacy. Anyway, the
person also cannot choose if to drive the car on the right or the left side. There are rules,
which every individual should adhere to if not living on the abandoned island. People just
got used to the comfort of having the possibility to pay by both cash and card.
Meanwhile some think that the choice will take away the control over their finance, they
do not realize that it could happen with paper money as well. I would like to remind the
case of communists ruling in the Czech Republic when they were able to transform rich
into poor through the monetary reform in 1953, all within a week (Chalupecky, n.d.).
They have done so by recalculating the old money to new money with the ratio of 5 to 1,
but only when turning in up to 5.000 CZK. Up to 10.000, the ratio was 10 to 1 and this
logic continued. And what more, the rumors about the monetary reform provoked the
shopping fever within the society resulting in high spending and the rotation of money,
which of course the government wished. In this case, not even real estates and properties
were safe, everything was nationalized. Another example is the current situation of
hyperinflation in Venezuela. While others, such as Sweden, are turning towards cashless
with a strategic plan, Venezuela is doing it involuntarily, which is caused by many bad
political decisions by President Maduro (Seelke, 2019). The domestic currency, the
bolivar, is almost useless due to extreme inflation in the country. The banking authorities
are setting limits to the commercial banks on how much the individual can withdraw. In
South America, the cash in the circulation has increased over the last five years by an
28
enormous number of 61.9% (World Cash Report, 2018). And so, even though the cash is
still the king in South America including Venezuela, as the World Cash Report suggests
(2018), the citizens are limited to using it, which makes even the richest people poor.
These cases would suggest that it does not really matter which options for paying the
people have as the value of the medium of exchange is in the hands of authorities.
Especially in the era of economic crisis, people cannot protect their savings even if hiding
it in the mattress. The government decides what happens with people’s welfare or
poverty.
On the other hand, a different type of crisis, such as natural disaster, can occur. As
mentioned already, cash is extremely important when the infrastructure breaks down and
it becomes impossible to use the electronic methods to pay (UBS, 2018). Even bankers
and governmental people are humans and they need something to pay with. During the
the disaster specialists interviewed one of the survivors, asking what he would have done
differently if he knew the disaster is coming. He answered that he would certainly have
packed good shoes, toothbrush and some cash (Stepherd-Barron, 2016). By saying this,
he aims to show that cash has presented itself as a life-saver in the times of crisis. When
the electricity fails for few days or even weeks, paper money serves the citizens to obtain
the main necessities to survive. This is where the idea of Rogoff (2016) comes in, saying
that the completely “cashless” society may have some flaws while “less-cash” society
brings the compromise for everyone. The reason he gives is that “less-cash” society offers
the availability of low-denomination notes that can be used for daily small transactions
but also during the crisis when it is impossible to use the electronic money.
29
3.2.4 Rich versus poor
Besides the difference between the approaches of governments and the individuals, the
disagreement whether to accept or reject the abolition of cash could appear also among
the individuals only. Specifically, the individuals from the higher-income groups and the
lower-income groups of people. According to Epstein (2017), the poor would be more
affected than rich because, putting simply, they use cash more often. This could be also
caused by the fact that poor do not have the access to electronic methods of paying in
many cases, as mentioned already before. It was shown that only 22% of individuals in
low-income economies have the possibility to pay electronically (The World Bank,
2017). Meanwhile in richer economies it is natural for the current generation to use
computers, mobile phones, the Internet and internet banking, the developing economies
To make a specific example, what was happening in India, starting in 2016 and continuing
in 2017, could demonstrate the situation of poor without cash clearly. In order to reduce
the hidden economy, counterfeit currency, terrorism in the country, and increase the tax
collection, the government of India announced on November 8, 2016, that the large-
denomination notes, specifically all 500 and 1000-rupee bills, will no longer be valid and
that they must be exchanged (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, 2017). Modi government
introduced Digital India Programme. By the act they called demonetization, they removed
around 86% of cash from the circulation in the country where 97% of all transactions
occur in cash, where only 10% of Indians have done a digital payment at least once and
where 93% of laborers are paid off-the-books (Kornberg, 2017). The tries by the Indian
government, such as tax removal on point of sale machines, did not help the desperate
situation of the poor in the country as they lacked the access to the bank or the
30
connectivity. Only 53% of the Indian population had established a bank account while
the policy has been implemented and the percentage of smartphones users was even lower
(Gaonkar, 2018). Therefore, the promotion of mobile wallets was not for help. The
government still hoped such situation is short-term and that the demonetization will work
as they wished in long-term. The number of electronic transactions was rising. Once the
government saw to drop the Indian’s GDP by 1%, they slowly eased the limits on
13th, all limits on cash withdrawals were canceled (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries,
2017). In Sweden, the transition towards less cash builds on a long tradition and the
development was left to the market itself. The situation in India was clearly forced by the
authorities.
Poor are not the only group of people suffering by such change, the older generation is
the second one. Logically, as such spread of technology is a recent phenomenon, retired
and seniors have issues with adapting themselves into the digital society. Similarly to the
poor, they are cash-dependent and the cashless world presents the hurdle for them. The
governmental people living in welfare and with enough money to feed their families may
see the move towards the cashless world as a very positive move, without major problems.
However, the Indian case prompts that cash still plays a crucial role in the life of poor and
elderlies. And so, the authorities should be careful with the implementation of modern
and electronic methods of payment, considering all levels of the society and groups of
people. They should make sure that everyone will handle the transition before such
implementation not to leave millions of people without the ability to purchase basic needs
for themselves and their families. This means that the government needs to focus more
31
The governments argue by saying that the necessary financial inclusion of unbanked
people can be increased by accumulating the savings from the tax collection, which has
been discussed above. Higher financial inclusion of the population coupled with higher
financial and technological literacy flowing from the abolition of cash is the benefit for
both the individuals and the government. The governments would have a better overview
of the people living in their countries as the level of transparency in the society would
rise. Among the individuals, financial inclusion would promote the equality of people
because every man and woman would own a bank account, would have the possibility to
store their savings. In many developing countries, the governments are trying to foster
financial inclusion by skipping the credit and debit card usage and moving directly to
mobile wallets. M-Pesa, the service launched by Vodafone in 2017 in Africa, serving the
clients to transfer the money through the mobile device solved the problem of people not
having the bank account (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, 2017). Though, it still does
not deal with the individuals who cannot afford such device.
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4 THE ROLE OF BANKS
Besides of governments and individuals, the banks and baking agents play an enormous
role in the process of becoming cashless. Especially because they are the main institutions
providing the service necessary to live without paper money – they are managing
accounts and providing their clients with debit cards, credit cards and other electronic
methods of payment. The banks’ importance fosters their cooperation with the
governmental agencies. Both agents have to compromise and arrive to the common goal
and vision once they wish to implement the change towards cashless society and fight the
cash usage. Thanks to that, the banks and the governments become allies instead of
opponents. In Sweden, the age-long cooperation of banks, the government and regulatory
bodies enabled the creation of great financial infrastructure to start implementing the
cashless society (Arvidsson, 2017). On the other hand, cash is currently the biggest
competitor to the electronic methods of payment. By removing the cash from the world,
the banks would gain enormous power over the financial market as their main competitor
would disappear. But what more, the cooperation of the agents, like banks and
governments, in order to create the world without cash also removes the competition of
these agents. Arvidsson (2017) says, by presenting “The Competition Paradox,” that
every market works better if there is a competition. The sufficient competition arranges
for convenient work environment, quality products, better services, lower prices for the
customers, and more. Therefore, the benefit of better cooperation between country’s
important forces needs to be weighed against the risk that the weak competition can cause.
Banks are businesses. And the goal of the business is to make revenues. Higher revenues
are also why businesses like Visa and Mastercard favor the shift towards a cashless world
33
a lot. They know that by removing the option to pay by cash from the people, they would
be able to significantly increase their client base as well as the amount of money deposited
in the banks. In order to foster the increased usage of their services, banks are continually
introducing innovations, which facilitates the operations and makes it more convenient
for their clients. For example, the contactless payments without the necessity to enter the
pin code until reaching specified value allow the customer to make the purchase within
few seconds. While the client takes out a large-denomination note, waiting for the seller
to find and return the coins, the cashless transaction could easily happen three or four
times. But why such efforts? Because banking institutions may be the biggest
Visa’s promotional video shows why going cashless is the best choice for businesses like
restaurants, that it is safer, faster, efficient and time-saving (Visa, 2017). Even though the
banks present cash abolition as an advantage for the others, they do not mention the
benefits cashless world brings to them. First, banks do not need to fear about losing
customers, even if they are in financial crisis, as the customers do not have other option
than using the account. The client could be only taken over by another bank. Second,
because of such power over the people, they can basically charge anything they want,
apply any fees they like. And last but not least, the central banks can let the interest rates
fall below zero when, for example, they need to get financially stable after the crisis. The
In the cashless world, the clients of the bank would not have the possibility to leave the
bank by withdrawing the money and keeping it in the form of cash. On the 14th of
34
September, 2007 in the United Kingdom – long queues began to form in front of the
Northern Rock banks. People started withdrawing their savings as a response to the
announcement of the bank regarding their emergency situation and the need to go to the
Bank of England for an emergency loan (House of Commons Treasury Committee, 2007-
2008). The clients were scared of being impoverished because of banks’ financial crisis.
Such fear resulted in so-called “The run on the Rock”. The number of 50-pound
banknotes in the circulation has risen from 6,7 billion in 2007 to 7,5 billion in 2008 (Bank
of England, n.d.). These banknotes were not withdrawn in order to start criminal activities
taken out because of the broken trust between the clients and the bank. Some of the money
has been invested into the property, gold, etc., some of it has been deposited in another
bank, some fraction has been kept home by the owners. In order to calm the situation
down and stop all the banks’ clients to panic, the government came with the bail-out
system to compensate their clients for their savings; however, only to some extent. The
clients who had deposited more than 35,000 pounds in the bank would lose excessive
2007-2008). Such loss is the reason why these clients would choose to withdraw their
savings anyway. The point is, when cash disappears, people lose the possibility to run
away and they are being forced to leave their savings where they are. By becoming
35
Figure 4. Percentage of transactions using non-cash method, source: Thomas (n.d.)
Figure 4 presents the percentage of transactions done by consumers that do not involve
paper money. Greece has only 2%, which prompts the low level of trust of consumers
towards banks. They went through the sovereign debt crisis and they see cash as a
security. This confirms once again that cash is the king during the crisis, which is hard to
observe in relatively calm period, when people’s savings are not endangered.
Cash is not the same as the money deposited in the bank because that money can be
manipulated through negative interest rates. It was mentioned few times already that cash
is king in the time of economic crisis. The same does not apply for banks. For them, the
cash is the worst in the time of economic crisis. The reason is that they are not able to
apply negative interest rates because cash pays always at least zero interest. Falling below
36
zero, in the world where cash still exists, would cause the trouble for the banks in the
sense that people would prefer to withdraw their savings and store them in their safes
back home. Rogoff (2016) in his book presents the possibility to set negative interest rates
as one of the main benefits of phasing out paper currency. He claims that lowering the
interest rates below zero would help the world to overcome the crisis sooner and recover
easier. He presents the example of 2008 financial crisis and suggests that US Federal
Reserve lowering interest rates to minus 5 and European Central Bank to minus 2 to 3
would be optimal monetary policy taking the countries out of a bad economic situation.
He continues by saying that lowering interest rates to minus while the inflation is zero is
From an economic point of view, Rogoff makes a point and suggests a logical strategy to
survive the financial crisis and recover the loss at the shortest time possible. From the
majority individuals’ point of view, it is suffering personal loss for someone else’s
mistakes, not being able to protect themselves by withdrawing cash. They would be losing
money because of irresponsible borrowers and fraudulent banks somewhere in the US.
Also, Clark (2017) adds that such act could lower individuals’ careful considerations of
loans and therefore, provoke risky behavior. For individuals, having 5 percent interest
rate or minus 5 percent is not the same. Rogoff is clearly considering the economical part
while forgetting about the emotional one, disregarding the reaction of individual
consumers. For sure, individuals’ trust and loyalty to the system is an important aspect of
a well-functioning society.
The Czech economist Hana Lipovska is going far to the future by considering many
possible outcomes. She says that negative interest rates set up by banks would increase
37
the consumers’ expenses. She assumes that the majority would opt for spending the
money instead of letting it slowly disappear on their bank accounts. Lipovska (2017)
argues that for the economy, savings are important as they lead to investments and
investments are necessary for technological development and stable economic growth.
Her very detailed assumption presents a serious threat to the future economy if the
The banks charge high fees for international money transfers. The client usually does not
disregard the option because travelling to the place where the money receiver lives would
cost more than paying the fee. The institutions are taking the money for the service they
are providing the client with. Locally, the banks still cannot afford to charge colossal fees
when two can meet and make the transaction in cash. Again, the banks would be in the
advantage over their client in the cashless society where the clients would not have the
option to use paper money and they would need to accept fees the bank sets for them.
4.1.3 Revolut
The British start-up Revolut comes with the idea that might be revolutionary in the era of
allows the clients to open an account and to transfer money within 29 countries for now.
The cards, set up online within few minutes, are connected to bank accounts but solely to
be able to top up. Otherwise, the system is not dependent on the bank. The user can opt
between the basic free account or the paid premium one offering even more of the
advantages. Their main benefit is the lack of fees for withdrawals or money transfers,
even the international ones. Additionally, they are offering the interbank exchange rates.
Considering the transaction takes the user only two clicks and few seconds, it also solves
38
the issue of splitting bills when, for example, sharing the taxi with friends (Revolut, n.d.).
While now the card is presented as the perfect tool for travelers, in longer-term Revolut
can serve as the competitor to the old-fashioned banks, decreasing their power over the
users once cash is restricted, and inspire other entrepreneurs coming out with similar
inventions.
39
5 CRIME
Another controversy of cashless supporters and opponents is if the paper money decreases
or increases the criminality. On one hand, the street criminals lose the physical money to
steal on the streets. The material things they could steal for personal purposes only as
they cannot exchange something they stole for cash. On the other hand, cybercrime, the
attacks on bank accounts, funds and any type of online money are rapidly increasing.
What matters is if the advantage of reduced street crime brings better benefits to society
Cash is the fuel driving criminality (Wright, 2016). The reason has been mentioned
already – it is anonymous and untraceable. Once cash leaves the bank, it is almost
impossible to get it back. And what more, cash can be easily stolen. The amount can range
from few dollars when the pickpocket robs the old lady on the street to millions of dollars
when the group of criminals implements a well-thought plan of a bank robbery. Swedish
Vastberga Heist case represents the latter. On September 23rd, 2009, the helicopter
landed in Swedish depot and took 6.5 million dollars (Heller, 2013). Although the robbers
were later caught, the money never came back. The case observed the biggest
disadvantages that cash presents – anonymity and intractability. Even though the
enormous security protections were on place, the criminals still found their way in,
without major inconveniences. That is also why Rogoff suggests especially the reduction
of big bills. It is much easier to transfer a large amount of money in 500-euro notes
without anyone noticing than transfer the same amount in five-euro notes (Rogoff, 2016).
In a cashless society, robbers would be surprised by the empty depot. Mai (2016) confirms
40
that the reduction of cash decreases the number of larcenies, burglaries, and assaults.
Wright (2016) agrees by mentioning that the implementation of the EBT program in the
USA, the move from the welfare checks to debit and credit cards, arranged a 10% drop
in the street crime. 10% is the number that the former tries to decrease the street crime,
like the amelioration of people’s social conditions, has never reached. It is also important
to notice that the program removed only some part of the cash. The drop would be
Other crimes caused by cash, according to cash opponents, are terrorism, money
laundering, bribery, drug dealing. Theoretically, the argument makes sense if considering
the cash’s ability to go from one to the other without being noticed. However, similarly
to the case of shadow economy mentioned above already, the reduction of cash may make
these illicit activities harder to perform, not totally erase them. On the other hand,
criminals will probably never go totally away and will evolve other methods, systems,
and inventions to be able to continue with such activities. As the world develops, it goes
parallelly with all of the industries as well as the evolution of human capital. In other
words, the everyday development incentivizes criminals to think differently, to come with
modern ideas, alternative ways to continue with the activities they are making their living
on. However, it might take a while and might need a certain level of skills and knowledge
of an online world for the criminals to develop new ways of robbing and stealing – the
cybercrime.
41
5.2 Cybercrime
While the street crime reduced in Sweden, the country closest to becoming cashless, the
cybercrime intensified. Wright (2016) present in his talk that reduced street crime and
increased usage of advanced methods of payment almost doubled the online crime. It is
possible that the level of cybercrime would raise even though the existence of paper
money, simply because technological development continues every day. Or more of the
criminals realize the size of their crimes in the cyber world in comparison with
Figure 5 shows that street crime together with robberies are decreasing with the reduction
of cash in the country. Decreased crimes are all connected to cash usage – bank robberies,
security van robberies, currency counterfeits. The decrease of cash-related crime also
leads to better security for people operating with cash (Kall & Lagerkvist, 2015). The
42
reasoning for this is that those people do not carry cash with them and therefore, the
robbers have nothing to rob. The other figure (Figure 6), recording the same time slot as
the first one, shows how card deceptions are increasing parallelly with the cash decrease.
While bank robberies almost disappeared, fraudulent card transactions almost tripled in
It was discussed that the banks are the main proponents of the cashless economy as they
are receiving the major benefits of it. Commercial banks are still closing some of their
branches and becoming more and more in favor of technological progress. However,
lately, Europe’s central banks are slowly changing their minds by realizing the
Cerulus and Contiguglia (2018) discuss that central banks are getting anxious and will
lobby for keeping cash in the system. There are several reasons for that. The governor of
the Australian National bank is worried about situations like the energy black-out, where
the electronic methods of payment would be disabled. In this case, the suggestion by
Rogoff, to phase out only large-denomination notes and keep the small ones for
emergencies, would still work. The second and more threatening reason is the rise of
cyber-attacks. According to Petra Hielkema, the director of payments at the Dutch Central
Bank, says that the bank is being attacked every single day (Cerulus & Contiguglia,
2018). In order to fight back, many European banks are designing ways to secure their
technologies and the stability of their financial system overall. One of those ways is the
With the ameliorated cyber criminals’ skills, also security systems are developing. The
director of Belgium’s central bank, Mr. Hermans, insights into the future, saying that the
era of 4-digit codes to enter our account is over and that people will have to remember
43
more complicated code set-ups (Cerulus & Contigug, 2018). The security practices must
44
6 Insight to the future
It should be clear that there are many advantages and drawbacks of a cashless society
after reading the above arguments. Both opponents and proponents have their truths. I
can nothing but agree with the idea presented in the book “The Curse of Cash” by Kenneth
Rogoff, which has been referred to throughout the study. Rogoff (2017) suggests
removing the large-denomination notes and keep the small denomination-notes for
foreseeable future or forever. The reduction of large notes, Rogoff (2017) says, would
allow ordinary people and cash-dependent people to continue using cash while making it
harder for tax evaders and crime operators to function. Throughout the study, Rogoff’s
proposal has been mentioned. The proposal responds the majority of arguments made by
cashless opponents. He admits that the cash reduction would not solve the issues of tax
avoidance and crime totally, but it is a good and non-extremist starting point for a change.
Additionally, Rogoff reminds that the markets must be cautious about moving towards
less-cash society and take into consideration the quality of financial institutions and if the
necessary financial infrastructure is available. The step by Indian prime minister in 2016,
announcing the reduction of cash in the country basically overnight was not an ideal move
towards functioning less-cash society, according to Rogoff’s study. The reasoning behind
this is that gradual implementation of the change avoids the dissent and helps with the
people’s adaptation (Rogoff, 2016, p.92). European Central Bank announced on 4th May,
2016 that the banks ends producing 500 euro notes due to its facilitation of illicit activities
(ECB, 2016). The act by ECB gives hope to the Rogoff’s idea and the vision of less-cash
45
Whether the population likes it or not, authorities are the ones deciding about the future
of this world. Most likely, there will not be some kind of referendum about removing,
reducing or keeping the cash, but the government decides what will happen to the future
of money, giving the public no other chance but to accept it. The study prompts that the
enormous pace with which the technology develops will force the reduction and in the
longer run the abolition of cash, moving to the next step in the evolution of money. The
proposal for the governments, emerging from this paper, is to ensure that the potential
transition period from cash to cashless will happen gradually, will include all of the
individuals, and will be cautious about the basic rights of the individuals such as privacy.
If complying with all of these conditions, the transition will happen easily.
The governments and the people in charge should guarantee that no individual will be left
out from the new, modern society. To guarantee that all of the individuals of the society
are involved, Kall and Lagerkvist (2015) suggest following the process of translation by
Michel Callon in his paper “Some elements of a sociology of translation”. Callon presents
four stages for appropriate implementation of the public to the new system. The four
The first element, problematization, consists of identifying different actors in the society
and how the change influences them. During the second one, interessement, some actors
should convince the others that their interest are aligned. In our case, the banks and
governments should convince individuals that the shift is done in their best interest and
explain how they can benefit from the shift. Enrolment, the third element of the process,
is closely connected to the second one. The researches confirm that if the interessement
is successful, it results in proper enrolment of all the actors. And what more, this step is
crucial as it supports the belief of the actors in the system, its acceptance, and
46
disseminations (Kall & Lagerkvist, 2015). The last part of the process, mobilizations,
should ensure that all of the actors act accordingly. In other words, all of the individuals
and members of the society should be knowledgeable about and confident to operate
within the new system. Without mobilization, the new society cannot function. The four
stages by Callon can help the governments with practical implementation of the cashless
society. The proper implementation will ensure the inclusion of every society’s member.
The society is balancing between what the authorities want and what the people are
willing to accept. The future of organizational stuff within the countries is mostly in the
hands of the governments but the power of people should not be undermined. People are
the ones who forced communists to leave the government of the Czech Republic simply
by taking keys out of their pockets and raising them over their heads. Governments are
functioning change, the authorities must ensure that people trust and accept the new
system. The governments must establish robust policies and rules of the cashless society.
Mainly, they should focus on the increase of advantages and the decrease of
disadvantages affecting individual consumers if the cash is driven out of the economy.
Considering the importance that cash symbolizes for people, the authorities need to justify
its abolition by the creation of public advantages. The governments should guarantee the
privacy and freedom for their people. The individuals will not put their faith in the system
if their bank accounts are frozen only because they are suspicious for some reason,
unknown to them. Or if they notice that the online platforms are offering them products
and pricing clearly based on their shopping habits. If the authorities want the people to
shift towards cashless payments, they need to provide them similar features as cash offers
them. Once governments start focusing on the advantageous aspects of the cashless
47
society for individual consumers, they make themselves, the banks, and individual
consumers balanced in the new society. Thus, the benefits will be equally spread.
48
7 Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits and drawbacks of the cashless
society with the main focus on the governments, individuals and the banks individually.
The paper intended to highlight the most important issues with removing paper money
and moving towards electronic methods of payment while decreasing cash-usage. The
study showed that people’s payment habits are changing continuously throughout
history. Thus, it is not much of surprise that the current huge technological development
different points of view and thought about different perspectives of a world without
paper currency. It discussed why governments and banks are usually the proponents of
The study concluded that the governments together with the banks receive the majority
uncertain with regard to tax collection, the governments would obtain control over the
whole financial system and the transparency of every transaction made. The
transparency would make it harder for tax evaders, criminals, and fraudulent people to
operate and easier for the authorities to search for them. The banks are in particular the
biggest beneficiaries because of the loss of their biggest competitor – cash. On the other
hand, the individual consumer ends up in the cashless system with no privacy and no
choice. Additionally, the poor and older individuals have issues becoming involved in
the cashless society because of their limited technical knowledge and skills.
49
It would be harsh to conclude that the benefits of becoming cashless overweigh the
drawbacks of it. However, the study presented many arguments defending both the
positive side and negative side of a world without cash. These arguments can serve for
individual consumers to become better informed about the very contemporary topic and
make themselves ready for the potential shift toward less-cash or the cashless society.
Additionally, the points can serve for the authorities to challenge themselves and
shown, individual consumers are the ones receiving the majority of disadvantages coming
from the implementation of the cashless world. Therefore, the governments need to make
sure that the benefits focused on individuals are equaled to the benefits of everyone else,
50
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