STUDENT NAME
Sweden In Move To Cashless Economy
March 20, 2012
Sweden is destined to become the first country in the world to switch from banknotes and coins to a cashless economy. Only three per cent of transactions in Sweden are made using cash; the rest is credit cards or mobile phone payments. This compares with 7 per cent in the USA and 9 per cent in other Eurozone countries.
Canada’s Chronicle Herald newspaper reported on the extent of Sweden’s move away from cash. It wrote: “In most Swedish cities, public buses don’t accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cellphone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards." It also said churches are only accepting digital donations and not hard currency.
Sweden was the first European country to introduce banknotes in 1661. Today, the Swedish Bankers'
Association is just one group in favor of a cashless society. Its security expert, Par Karlsson, said: “Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public.” Bank robberies have gone down from 110 in 2008 to just 16 in 2011. Political corruption has also decreased because of the digital trail generated by electronic transactions. Not everyone supports getting rid of cash. Small business owners see it as another way for banks to make bigger profits. Banks charge from 5 Swedish kronor
($0.80) for every payment made by credit card.
Activity 1: What are the pros and cons of each of the following methods of payment? Complete the table. Then, find a partner and share what you wrote.
Cash
Pros
Credit card
Prepaid cards
Cheques
(bank checks)
Online payments
(i.e. PayPal)
Bartering
Money2020 stirs up cashless society debate
October 11, 2013
Cons
Former Citibanker Jay Bhattacharya, giving a speech at a recent Las Vegas conference, came brandishing a newspaper clipping from 1972 that confidently forecast the arrival of a cashless society by the end of the 1970s.
The yellowing clipping, headlined 'Cashless Society Predicted by Credit Card Use', claimed cash and paper

cheques would disappear with the mass adoption of credit cards and the unveiling of ATM machines at more than 5,300 banks owned by the Interbank Card Association.
The article, which appeared in the January 26, 1972 edition of The Fresno Bee, forecast that the combination of credit cards and ATM machines would allow consumers the means to carry money for only emergencies.
Bhattacharya - who was at Citigroup for seven years where he was responsible for its emerging payments strategy and helped launch Citi Ventures - was at the show to promote his new start-up ZipMark, which creates digital copies of paper cheques to speed up the payment and settlement cycle.
"It's fascinating to know that 40 years ago Americans thought we'd ditch our purses and wallets and just walk around with a credit card to pay for things," he says. "I think the lesson learned from the 1972 article about evolving into a 'Cashless Society' is that technology will improve the way we conduct transactions but at the end of the day it probably won't completely replace paper money."
Delegates attending Money2020 were subject to a barrage of announcements from a host of start-ups and bigger companies like Google, PayPal, and Amazon, all operating from the same basic presumption that the payments industry is ripe for disruption by fresh digital alternatives.
Activity 2: Do you think the United States will become a completely cashless society by 2020? Why or why not? Use examples from your own personal experience and/or the article to help support your claims.
Activity 3 : Suppose the United States does become a completely cashless society during our lifetimes. What are the detriments (negatives) society will face as a result? Will these outweigh the benefits? Why/why not?
Article Sources: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1203/120320-cashless_economy.html and http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=25315