The Final Score? Cash :1 Conference: Didn't !

There was another conference yesterday,this time under the auspices of the World Economic Forum, at which cards and electronic transactions were given center stage.

Supporters of cash as a payment method find this focus on other payment methods bemusing.

Of course,there is a big difference between smart "Cloud Nine" conferences and the real World. At such conferences, whole sessions are given over to "Contactless Cards",whilst back on Terra Firma, the 5 Billion people living on less than $10 a day think conference goers have simply lost contact with reality!

The two major nations with the fastest economic growth in recent years-China and India-show us the reality of payment leadership. Both countries have shunned the pseudo sophistication of other payment methods to rely on cash as their Number 1 financial inclusion tool.China has increased access to cash 4-fold in the last few years and India is speedily following suit.

Hardly surprising that India has decided to back cash as a payment method. With the Government there having to find a way of subsidising rice prices for around 800 Million of their people, they can ill-afford to be paying transaction fees to card schemes.

One of the laughable criticisms of paper cash is that it carrys disease! Those who spout this "news" have yet to provide yearly fatality figures, but I will take a guess that they would be significantly lower than those related to our planets main ailment : POVERTY.

Strangely, I have yet to find a poor person who would turn down a banknote, whatever its condition.No doubt they put aside the "paper disease" issue in favour of having enough money to feed their families!

 

 

 

Wednesday, 27th November 2013

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