How early can Australia become a completely cashless economy?
Mar 27, 2017 under Australia 90
The Reserve Bank is introducing new technology this year which will push Australia even further towards being a cashless society.
Later this year the bank will roll out a new system called the New Payment Platform (NPP).
The NPP will mean money can be transferred almost instantaneously, even when the payer and payee are members of different banks.
The technology will also support "overlay" services, meaning banks will be able to create their own payment services to entice customers.
Professor Richard Holden, from the University of New South Wales, has been studying the rise of the electronic economy and said the NPP would make electronic payments "super easy."
"[It] is going to make it super easy to transfer money instantaneously for free of any amount or kind," he said.
"So you're not going to have to worry about setting up someone as a payee in your online banking and making sure you've typed in the BSB number and stuff like that.
"It's really going to be as simple as, I want to pay you $30 now for some service and I can just pay it based on an email address or phone number."
In 2014, 12 financial institutions signed up to build the NPP, partly as a way of bringing Australia up to speed with other countries that are ahead in the race to becoming completely cashless.
Sweden is on track to become the world's first completely cashless economy, and just last November India got rid of its highest denomination bills, effectively eliminating 90 per cent of its paper money.
Professor Holden estimates Australia could be cash free as early as 2020.
The 2015 Westpac Cash Free report also predicted Australia would be cash free by 2022, as more and more customers move to tap and pay technology.
Tagged: Australia 109, Reserve Bank of Australia 1
