Who Wins in a Cashless Economy?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The death of cash has been predicted many times over the years. But in the last decade a future without coins and notes has become a real possibility thanks to the global development and adoption of cashless systems. Some banks in Scandinavia are already refusing to accept or hand out cash. And, in nations with poor banking infrastructure, the growth of cashless has been explosive. Millions of people around the world now conduct their lives with hardly any cash at all and in terms of convenience, most of us are winners. But warnings are sounding about the driving forces behind this shift. Are we in danger of getting rid of our cash without really understanding the consequences? Presented by Linda Yueh.
(Photo: View of a smartphone displaying the 'Contactless' application. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Linda Yu with the inquiry. |
| 0:02.4 | If current trends are anything to go by, |
| 0:09.8 | this sound could be a thing of the past. |
| 0:13.2 | In just a few years, Korea plans to be entirely coinless. |
| 0:20.0 | Denmark and Sweden are also on their way to become in cashless. |
| 0:24.0 | We are a world that is fast losing our attachment to cash. |
| 0:28.0 | Over 90% of all consumer spending is cashless |
| 0:32.0 | in countries like Belgium, France, and Canada. |
| 0:35.0 | Kenya and the UAE are also moving quickly towards cashlessness. |
| 0:40.0 | The phasing out of cash and the rise of electronic payments has happened without much fanfare. |
| 0:49.0 | Some of us may not even have noticed. |
| 0:54.0 | For those who worry about privacy, though, it is a contentious issue. |
| 0:59.2 | So our question this week, who wins in a cashless economy? |
| 1:07.0 | Part 1, losing money. Our first expert witness, Valgoni Desai, works in FinTech. You may not have heard of FinTech before. |
| 1:23.0 | That word probably only came into play in 2010. |
| 1:27.0 | FinTech stands for financial technology. |
| 1:30.0 | We're not talking about a new digital currency like Bitcoin. We're still using our own |
| 1:36.3 | currencies, just not in paper form or cash. |
| 1:39.7 | FinTech, it's simply the way that technology and financial services have been playing together |
| 1:47.0 | is technology that allows a transaction to happen in a more virtual, mobile online method. |
| 1:54.0 | Our journey away from Cash started a long time ago. |
| 1:59.0 | If you go back to the 1870s when the wire transfers were invented that's when it began. |
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