We live in a digital era where smartphones rule. These intelligent devices offer consumers instant and convenient access to information, services, shopping, banking and payments. So a logical question is to ask whether banknotes and coins still have a role to play in society and what the future holds for cash. As paradoxical as it may seem, increasing digitalisation means the role of cash becomes more prominent.
For more than a decade, various experts and analysts have been forecasting the imminent end of cash and its replacement by debit and credit cards, online and mobile payments. Recently a high level banker predicted that cash will be gone in a decade.