Bank of England Reports Cash Recovery

The Bank of England published in its quarterly bulleting an update on cash. The headlines were that cash has made a partial recovery. It has not returned to where it was but given that transaction usage has stabilised, it is probable that it will not recover further to where it was. Cash in circulation remains elevated and has not yet started to fall. The article provides the detailed research and data gathered to understand what has happened and what is likely to happen.

The Bank is clear that there has been a long-term shift in payment habits to using digital payments. Despite that, the Bank’s January 2022 survey found that for about 20% of the population cash is their preferred method of payment, a figure that has not changed from before the pandemic, and which, therefore, probably represents the base figure for cash. The UK Finance’s Payments Market Survey 2022 found 1.1 million people dependent on cash.