Private and Confidential 1
Cashless Societies
Private and Confidential 2
Cashless Societies – Sweden Case Study
Source: ComputerWeekly.com
Sweden is fast becoming a country
where cash is on the periphery of payments, and
some think it might be the first to
become cashless.
Private and Confidential 3
Cashless Societies – Sweden Case Study (Contd.)
Source: ComputerWeekly.com
Swedish buses have not accepted cash for years.
Retailers have the right to refuse cash payments.
Even homeless & street vendors take cards thanks to new digital payment systems.
Private and Confidential 4
Cashless Societies – Case Study
Source: ComputerWeekly.com
Aiming for completely cashless society within 10 years.
Other Scandinavian countries also performing similarly. (Finland world leader in
number of non-cash transactions per inhabitant).
Private and Confidential 5
Cashless Societies – Retail Payments
Only 20% retail
payments in 2014 were made in cash as compared
to 39% in 2010.
Cash is 2% of GDP (EU average 7%).
Facts & Figures
Private and Confidential 6
Cashless Societies – Banks
Purely market-driven to find cheaper and more
efficient use of payments
Digital readiness (mobile phones and
internet connections)
Early starters since 1970s; huge IT infrastructure
investments in banks
900 of the 1600 commercial bank
branches no longer offer cash-handling services.
Some bank branches have discarded cash services completely
No central bank or government intervention
Private and Confidential 7
Success Drivers (1/2)
Success of mobile payment application “Swish.” Over 9m payments in Nov 2015 using Swish
Developed in collaboration between Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Länsförsäkringar Bank,
Nordea, SEB & Swedbank
Mobile phone numbers enable real-time a/c-to-a/c payments
3.8 million users (40% of population) enrolled since late 2012
Expanded in 2014 to cover consumer-to-business payments, including retail
Private and Confidential 8
Success Drivers (2/2)
Swedish mobile payment startup iZettle enables
Stockholm’s street vendors to adopt card payments by converting their
handheld devices into payment
terminals.
Startup businesses in Finland (<5 years) rated highest for use of digital tools, technologies, mobile responsive websites, social media & e-commerce offering.
Private and Confidential 9
Societal Impact
All transactions become traceable if cash disappears (organized crime).
Lack of privacy.
Bank robberies at an all-time low (5 in 2012; 51 in 2002).
Electronic fraud has more than doubled in 10 years (140,000 cases in 2014).
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