The health crisis has accentuated the decline in the use of cash, acting as a catalyst for changes in behaviour. A Banque de France bulletin reviews the latest trends in the cash industry. In particular, the digitalisation of payments has increased.
- The dematerialisation of payment instruments has accelerated over the last five years ;
- Before 2010, card payments were 2.7 times higher than ATM withdrawals, which are a good indicator of cash payments ;
- This ratio rose to 4.3 in 2019. In 2020, it increased to around 5 ;
- The increase is less marked for card payments in point-of-sale (POS) outlets alone ;
- The stronger growth in the first ratio can be attributed to e‑commerce, which grew particularly rapidly due to the closure of stores during the health crisis ;
- Over the next few years, it is expected that contactless card payments will continue to grow and mobile payments will develop ;
- Still not widely used, these mobile payments are being strongly promoted by smartphone manufacturers, with payment applications becoming more sophisticated and with a wider range of features ;This development of smartphone payments is likely to be at the expense of bank card payments, and possibly cash payments too.
The growth in the value of euro banknotes in circulation has been strong since their introduction in 2002. This growth was particularly pronounced during the financial crisis of 2008 and during the coronavirus pandemic. On average, the annual growth of euro banknotes in circulation has been 5% per year since 2010, but it reached 12% in February 2021.
