News in Brief

Westpac Invest in New POS Terminals to Help the Visually Impaired

Westpac, a major Australian bank, has re-designed its point-of-sale (POS) terminals to help blind and visually impaired people use them more easily. 110,000 machines are being changed for Android-based devices with new functionality.

The bank, along with its partner Verifone, held workshops to understand the needs of people with vision, hearing and motor impairments. Depending on their needs, people can alternate colour contrasts, magnification and audio prompts.

Privacy for PIN entry is an issue for this group of people, and so an ‘accessibility’ mode has been designed that uses audio and sound to help orientation on a blank screen.

Explaining the Great COVID Cash Surge

Jonathan Ashworth and Charles A Goodhart’s recent paper, ‘The Great Covid Cash Surge – Digitalisation Hasn’t Dented Cash’s Safe Haven Role’, covers ground that is now well-trodden by others. They have used an extensive data set from 70 countries, including all 37 OECD countries, to look at what has happened to cash over 2020 and 2021.