Access to Cash: a European Perspective

Cash Essentials recently ran the first in a series of ‘Cash Talks’ looking at access to cash with reports from AGE Platform Europe, the European Retail Payment Board (ERPB), the Dutch National Bank (DNB) and LINK.

Those who need cash

Anne-Sophie Parent is co-chair of the ERPB working group on access to and acceptance of cash. She spoke in her capacity at AGE Platform Europe providing some thoughts on those who need cash and some of the challenges for cash.

Need for cash: She started with some facts about three groups who are not ready for digital payments: 

• In France, 20% of 15-29 year olds are not confident using digital devices beyond social media.

• In the European Union (EU), 40% of 16-74 year olds have no or low digital skills and are unable to cope with digital financial services. This percentage has not changed since 2017.

• According to the European Commission’s Retail Payment strategy, there are 30 million unbanked people in Europe.