ECB Emphasises the Importance of Cash

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published the results of a major study into the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE) and compared it with a similar 2016 study (the SUCH study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area). It also published results of another large scale interim 2020 survey, the impact of the pandemic on cash trends (IMPACT) survey.

The reports give a mass of data about all types of payment. Cash remains the most used payment method but with evidence of changing usage, albeit the variation across Europe is very significant. The report is rich in information and this summary picks out just a few of its findings.

The SPACE survey, conducted between mid-March 2019 and midDecember 2019, consisted of 41,155 respondents in 17 euro area countries reporting their transactions in one-day payment diaries, along with payment diaries from Germany and the Netherlands in 2017 and 2019, which were included where possible in the analysis.