Canadians prefer cashless payments

Canada is one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to cashless payments, says a new Mastercard report.

That’s due to the early adoption of solutions like tap-and-go technology and our country’s modern payments infrastructure.

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“The increased adoption of electronic payments has propelled Canada,” says Betty K. DeVita, president of MasterCard Canada. “Canadian’s are comfortable with…using other forms of payment and have been at it for years.”

Key findings of report include:

• Of the $63 trillion in total global consumer spend in 2011, only 34% ($21 trillion) was done with cash versus the 66% ($42 trillion) accounted for by cashless payments.
• Non-cash payments now account for 90% of the total value of consumer payments in Canada.
• The U.S. (where an estimated 80% of the value of consumer spend was cashless) and Singapore (where 69% of spending was cashless) are considered to be approaching a tipping point to becoming nearly cashless.
• Emerging economies such as India (32% is cashless), Russia (31% is cashless) and Nigeria (10% is cashless) are shifting cash share at faster paces than developed countries, mostly due to the habits of the growing middle class.

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To determine how close regions are to moving away from cash, the report looked at factors like: accessibility of financial services; the scale and market share of retailers; levels of technology; and the strength of the consumer market in each region.

In countries such as Germany (where about 76% of the value of consumer spend was cashless), however, cultural traditions and beliefs appear to be supporting cash usage. The same phenomenon is occurring in Japan (62% is cashless), Spain (54% is cashless) and Taiwan (43% cashless).

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.