The Truth Behind the Cashless Headlines

David Hensley of Enryo, an independent consultancy in the financial services sector, is publishing a series of articles on access to cash in the UK. A recent post highlighted how misleading the constant stream of headlines about a cashless society is. So often the statements are based on personal experience, the narrow interest of a sector or organisation or comparing ATM cash withdrawal levels with the number of digital transactions. Going cashless makes for wonderfully shocking, attention-grabbing headlines.

Cash withdrawals from ATMs may fall, but cash is accessed from other sources such as banks, post offices and shops. While each digital transaction is a one off event, each coin or banknote is highly likely to be used in a number of transactions before returning to be counted somewhere in the cash system.