A European Central Bank study released on Tuesday revealed that cash is no longer the most popular form of payment in the eurozone, marking a historic shift for a region of the world that has lagged behind peers in adopting new payment methods.
Since the central bank, began to survey customers in 2016, the ECB study revealed that cards accounted for the majority of money spent at stores, restaurants, and other places of sale in the eurozone.
In parts of the eurozone like Germany and Italy, where cash is perceived as protecting privacy and fending off bank fees, or demonized as a facilitator of tax fraud, it is a contentious political issue.
According to the ECB’s poll, consumers in the eurozone are now finally embracing card and digital payments for their convenience, which have long been the norm in other wealthy regions of the world like Northern Europe and the United States.
According to the poll, cards surpassed cash for the first time and accounted for 46% of all Euro payments made at points of sale.
Cash continued to dominate in terms of transaction volume, but its advantage shrank to just 59% from 72% in 2019.
However, there remained a startling disparity between nations, with cash still making up at least 70% of point-of-sale transactions in Malta, Slovenia, and Austria while it was only about 20% in the Netherlands and Finland.
Contrary to expectations, respondents did not perceive the COVID-19 pandemic as a turning moment, with more than half reporting that they were still utilizing currency on a regular basis.
However, 37% of respondents claimed they were making more frequent online purchases, which helped explain why, measured by the value of transactions, online payments for one-time purchases increased from 14% to 28% in 2019.
