Brian Moynihan CEO of one of the largest financial institutions in the World Bank of America issued a statement this week embracing the new movement towards a digital currency future. He commented on the subject saying that his firm has more to gain than anybody in this situation as the ever increasing trend of nonphysical transactions becomes more mainstream. Moynihan who leads the second largest US bank said “We want a cashless society.” And went on to say that more than fifty percent of current monetary transactions that take place daily are processed electronically, this of course driven by the rise of cryptocurrencies and online payment gateways such as PayPal, Zella, and digital wallets.

A report conducted by the San Francisco Federal reserve in 2018 stated that physical cash was still the most used payment instrument, and represented 30 percent of all transactions and a little over 50% of transactions under $10. However since 2018 we have seen a huge rise of digital replacements for cash, as a large number of people feel safer using facilities available to them. Since the report we have seen a surge in a combination of crypto currencies, cashless payments and e-wallets with Apple Pay, Google Pay, slowly reducing the need for consumers to use cash payments. In the majority of countries data shows that a large percentage of consumers have chosen to adopt mobile banking as their primary payment method, and more frequently use debit cards for their daily purchases.

Many businesses around the globe, including countries like Sweden are also pushing for a cashless future, and moving towards accepting payments digitally. Analysts forecast that transactions that are not using physical monies are set to grow by a rate of almost 13% compounded through the year of 2021, this according to a study by BNP. With such a large growth forecast over the next 2 years, this has given many financial intermediaries a great opportunity to reap the benefits from processing said transactions. Moynihan has said that the banking sector is already in a prime position, as many of their services have already been digitalized. The banking sector had already seen the figures and made adjustments to meet the demand, and their only concern now is how to add value to their services.


Samuel Thompson – IEC International