Should we prepare ourselves for a cashless future? Not according to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). True, debit card use has been steadily increasing while fewer and fewer counter payments are made in cash; but cash continues to play a pivotal role. The growing use of debit cards is in line with the ambition to make POS payments safer and more efficient. At the same time, DNB is committed to maintaining cash as a universally useable and available payment instrument and a smoothly functioning cash chain.
Debit card use continues to increase
Points of sale handle increasing numbers of debit card payments, while cash use is gradually declining. The latest research by DNB reveals that the volume of debit card payments at Dutch points of sale has increased from €81 billion in 2010 to €84 billion in 2012. At the same time, cash withdrawals at ATMs dropped from €52 billion in 2010 to €49 billion in 2012. So in terms of sales, the card has overtaken cash, but in terms of transaction numbers, cash is still the dominant means of payment: To illustrate the still pivotal role of cash: the year 2012 saw 3.8 billion cash payments made at Dutch counters, against 2.5 billion card transactions…
Cash must remain universally usable and available
Under the circumstances, DNB expects cash to remain indispensable for some time to come. For this reason, cash should remain generally available as an all-purpose means of payment, implying that consumers must be readily able to withdraw and deposit cash from and into their bank accounts. Retailers, in turn, should have easy means at their disposal to deposit counter receipts into their bank accounts.
DNB Bulletin release link: click here