PR Place quoted me and my recent blog post on the future of cash in their weekly summary:
https://www.prplace.com/blog/posts/2018/december/this-week-in-pr-21-december/
Showing posts with label payments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label payments. Show all posts
21 December 2018
18 December 2018
Blog post: Going, going, gone: the future of cash
I love thinking about my 1980s family holidays in Italy. Weeks spent on beaches, in ice cream shops, pizzerias and gaming arcades. Phone calls back home were strictly kept to three minutes as they were so ridiculously expensive. Everything was paid in cash. I remember how excited I felt when I was a Lira millionaire. It was exotic and precious.
As you can see, I have a very emotional attachment to cash. I like that I have much better control over how much I spend and that my children can use to learn how the financial system works. But I do not think that cash is very practical. I actually very rarely have cash with me. At a fun fair a few weekends ago, I had to hurry 10 minutes to a cashpoint and back so I could buy tokens for the rides, as the organisers did not accept cards. Without enormous pressure from various children, I would have walked on for sure.
I do not think cash is safe either. The number of people I personally know who have had cash stolen from them is in the dozens. Including myself. The number of people I know who had their bank card stolen and money taken from their account is – one. And their bank paid back the money within days as it could easily spot an unusual spending pattern. So if carrying cash is more risky, would it not make sense to get rid of it? It is exactly what Sweden does. But going completely cash-free is politically sensitive.
Cash does have its prize
Governments keep cash alive because it is a social method of making payments. It is accessible to everyone and it does not discriminate against anyone. It is the key payment method for the millions of people who do not have a bank account and are not able to use a card or mobile phone to make payments. When I was a teenager, my grandmother gave me the ‘secret handshake’. What made this gesture so meaningful was that there was an immediate tangible and therefore emotional result. Had she transferred money to my bank account it would have had a very different emotional effect on me. Yet, money is money, and the way it is being handled and passed on does not define its value.
What defines value though is cost. And cash is expensive. It needs to be designed, manufactured, transported, protected, counted and destroyed. Numbers that circulate indicate that the cost of cash is £130 per person per year. Many of us use price comparison websites to shave off a few pounds of our monthly mobile phone bills. If we add cost to the cash equation, it makes increasingly less sense to use it.
Cash – the only stalwart of privacy
A key argument for cash is the anonymity it provides. I am very much pro-privacy and try to avoid giving too much data about myself away. I do not, really, want anyone or any business to know how, where and when I spend my money, and to predict or even influence what I am going to do next. Yet I still prefer cards over cash. They are simply more secure and more convenient.
But for me, cards are transitional only. Once crypto-currencies evolve into a mainstream payments method and can be used for day to day financial transactions, the discussion around convenience vs security vs anonymity will become irrelevant. We will then be able to make payments in a private, anonymous and secure way. No more cards, no more cash needed. These currencies will likely be issued by national central banks, but neither private banks nor card providers can then control, dictate or profit from the way we choose to pay for goods and services.
When talking to our clients, most agree that this will take many years to get there, but the current state of payments is unsustainable and will drive adoption. The current situation is neither cashless-friendly nor cash-friendly. Most shops accept cards and sometimes only accept card payments, yet we still need cash machines to pay at festivals, market stalls or fun fairs. Having parallel payment infrastructures in place is neither efficient nor helpful.
The future is digital. It is not cash
Our lives have become digital. We WhatsApp our friends rather than calling them, and we send emails rather than writing letters by hand. Digital has not completely replaced the physical, and should never fully do so. But it is impacting the way we think, work and interact with each other. This is how we describe what it is our clients do when we speak to the media and other audiences: they create something new and “better” that has an impact on our lives.
Exchanging physical coins and notes is not contemporary anymore. In a few years, carrying around a small card made out of plastic will not be seen as contemporary either. Our digital lifestyles create massive shifts in our behaviours and these shifts will continue to affect the way we make payments. A recent example is the launch of Apple Pay in Germany – a country which traditionally has been cash friendly.
When it comes to cash, there is emotion on one side and practicality, convenience, security and anonymity on the other. We as human beings would not exist without our ability to have and share emotions. But if we see transactions, such as buying or selling products, as a rational way to deal with other human beings, then the way we fulfil these transactions should be rational too. Cash may not be gone yet. But it is only a matter of time before it will be a thing of the past, evoking pleasant memories.
Published 18 December 2018 on hkstrategies.com:
http://www.hkstrategies.com/united-kingdom/en-uk/going-going-gone-future-cash/
As you can see, I have a very emotional attachment to cash. I like that I have much better control over how much I spend and that my children can use to learn how the financial system works. But I do not think that cash is very practical. I actually very rarely have cash with me. At a fun fair a few weekends ago, I had to hurry 10 minutes to a cashpoint and back so I could buy tokens for the rides, as the organisers did not accept cards. Without enormous pressure from various children, I would have walked on for sure.
I do not think cash is safe either. The number of people I personally know who have had cash stolen from them is in the dozens. Including myself. The number of people I know who had their bank card stolen and money taken from their account is – one. And their bank paid back the money within days as it could easily spot an unusual spending pattern. So if carrying cash is more risky, would it not make sense to get rid of it? It is exactly what Sweden does. But going completely cash-free is politically sensitive.
Cash does have its prize
Governments keep cash alive because it is a social method of making payments. It is accessible to everyone and it does not discriminate against anyone. It is the key payment method for the millions of people who do not have a bank account and are not able to use a card or mobile phone to make payments. When I was a teenager, my grandmother gave me the ‘secret handshake’. What made this gesture so meaningful was that there was an immediate tangible and therefore emotional result. Had she transferred money to my bank account it would have had a very different emotional effect on me. Yet, money is money, and the way it is being handled and passed on does not define its value.
What defines value though is cost. And cash is expensive. It needs to be designed, manufactured, transported, protected, counted and destroyed. Numbers that circulate indicate that the cost of cash is £130 per person per year. Many of us use price comparison websites to shave off a few pounds of our monthly mobile phone bills. If we add cost to the cash equation, it makes increasingly less sense to use it.
Cash – the only stalwart of privacy
A key argument for cash is the anonymity it provides. I am very much pro-privacy and try to avoid giving too much data about myself away. I do not, really, want anyone or any business to know how, where and when I spend my money, and to predict or even influence what I am going to do next. Yet I still prefer cards over cash. They are simply more secure and more convenient.
But for me, cards are transitional only. Once crypto-currencies evolve into a mainstream payments method and can be used for day to day financial transactions, the discussion around convenience vs security vs anonymity will become irrelevant. We will then be able to make payments in a private, anonymous and secure way. No more cards, no more cash needed. These currencies will likely be issued by national central banks, but neither private banks nor card providers can then control, dictate or profit from the way we choose to pay for goods and services.
When talking to our clients, most agree that this will take many years to get there, but the current state of payments is unsustainable and will drive adoption. The current situation is neither cashless-friendly nor cash-friendly. Most shops accept cards and sometimes only accept card payments, yet we still need cash machines to pay at festivals, market stalls or fun fairs. Having parallel payment infrastructures in place is neither efficient nor helpful.
The future is digital. It is not cash
Our lives have become digital. We WhatsApp our friends rather than calling them, and we send emails rather than writing letters by hand. Digital has not completely replaced the physical, and should never fully do so. But it is impacting the way we think, work and interact with each other. This is how we describe what it is our clients do when we speak to the media and other audiences: they create something new and “better” that has an impact on our lives.
Exchanging physical coins and notes is not contemporary anymore. In a few years, carrying around a small card made out of plastic will not be seen as contemporary either. Our digital lifestyles create massive shifts in our behaviours and these shifts will continue to affect the way we make payments. A recent example is the launch of Apple Pay in Germany – a country which traditionally has been cash friendly.
When it comes to cash, there is emotion on one side and practicality, convenience, security and anonymity on the other. We as human beings would not exist without our ability to have and share emotions. But if we see transactions, such as buying or selling products, as a rational way to deal with other human beings, then the way we fulfil these transactions should be rational too. Cash may not be gone yet. But it is only a matter of time before it will be a thing of the past, evoking pleasant memories.
Published 18 December 2018 on hkstrategies.com:
http://www.hkstrategies.com/united-kingdom/en-uk/going-going-gone-future-cash/
16 December 2013
Blog post: PC Harrington and what PRs can learn from fraudsters
I nearly became a fraud victim yesterday. Nearly, because I didn’t. But it was very close.
I received a call on my landline at around 11.30pm yesterday from PC Harrington at Holborn Police Station. PC Harrington gave me an internal police identification number and said that they had just arrested two men who skimmed my debit card to raid my bank account. The police found £1,200 when they arrested them. PC Harrington urged me to call my bank straight away and told me to not log in to my online banking account in the next 24 hours, as this would enable the fraudsters to take more money from my account.
I hung up, slightly confused. One minute later I received another call from PC Harrington, he gave me a crime reference number and asked whether I had already called my bank. He urged me to hang up and call the bank straight away, so I did and called the helpline of my bank. I spoke to Adam, who was very friendly and, after taking my name, said that there had indeed been some suspicious transactions on my account in the last two hours. He asked many questions and then asked me to type in my card details on my phone. The line became a bit crackly and when Adam mentioned my Mastercard credit card (whereas I’m with Visa), finally – finally! – the penny dropped.
Published 16 December 2013, read the full article here: http://www.mhpc.com/financial/pc-harrington-and-what-prs-can-learn-from-fraudsters/
1 March 2013
Blog post: 7 things you thought you knew about Bitcoin (but that are wrong)
Bitcoin has made headlines again yesterday, reaching an all-time
trading high of more than £21. This is a significant
development for the fairly new alternative currency, which started at Zero in
2009. Bitcoins has slowly and quietly become a global phenomenon which is
featured prominently in the media, and has started to attract the special
attention of global regulators.
So how exactly does Bitcoin work? Here are seven myths which
describe what Bitcoin is, and – more importantly – what it not is.
Published 01 March 2013 on whiteboardmag.com, read the full
article here: http://www.whiteboardmag.com/7-things-you-thought-you-knew-about-bitcoin-but-that-are-wrong/
12 February 2013
Blog post: Twitter & American Express introduce “pay with a tweet”: the future of e-commerce?
The announcement that Twitter now offers a fully integrated payments service on its platform via American Express doesn’t come as a real surprise. The logical extension of both companies’ existing collaboration just makes sense, and is in fact good news.
The US card mogul started integrating with major social networks a while ago, including Facebook and Twitter. Amex’ Twitter Sync already allows customers to be eligible for discount deals when they tweet special offer #hashtags. To enable that service, users have to connect their Twitter account to their Amex credit card account.
Published 12 February 2013, read the full article here: http://www.whiteboardmag.com/twitter-is-now-offering-pay-with-a-tweet-for-real-what-that-means/
4 January 2013
Mention: Top 10 influencers in European emerging payments
I am mentioned as one of the top 10 influencers in European emerging payments by Terrapinn.
Published 4 January 2013, read the full article here: (Archived)
Published 4 January 2013, read the full article here: (Archived)
24 April 2012
Blog post: Digital Currencies: No Threat to Their Real Counterparts - Yet, PYMNTS.COM
There has been much speculation about the fate of the Euro over recent months. Maybe a bit too much as it is difficult to predict (and tiring to hear) what will or will not happen to a currency which is still in its youth, in historical terms. These recent developments in the currency arena however have prompted a renewed focus on alternative currencies, so let’s take a look at these – their future may be easier to predict too, after all.
Published 24 April 2012, read the full article here:
26 July 2011
Blog post: "Cash in or cash out?"
Once everyone’s darling, the fall of cash has been spectacular. Take last year’s announcement from a telecoms provider and supermarkets in the Netherlands stopping accepting cash payments, for example. Or the survey commissioned by the UK Payments Council that concludes that “by 2050, using cash could well be a minority activity [... and] a progressive move away from cash could hold many benefits.”
There is a point to this. Reports claim that cash costs every person in Europe 130 EUR a year for creating, distributing, collecting and destroying coins and notes. There are other downsides: 25 per cent of employees in Swedish retailers have been victims of violence during robberies, and there are calls to end the use of cash for theft prevention purposes. And obviously cash is a non-digital asset which cannot be spent on online purchases.
Mobile payments are therefore seen as the “new cash” and the way forward to bridge offline and online worlds. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users globally and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, the market opportunity is huge. Juniper predicts that 50 billion USD in worldwide sales revenue will be generated by Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments by 2014. PayPal expects that its volume of payments processed via mobile devices will exceed 3 billion USD this year. The company also predicts that by 2015, consumers will be able to leave their wallets at home as digital currencies replace traditional payment methods.
However there is some way to go. Research found that 90% of UK consumers have not heard of NFC, and more than two thirds have not come across the term “mobile wallet”. The technology and business case may be in place, but whether it’s time to cash out or not is still up for debate.
There is a point to this. Reports claim that cash costs every person in Europe 130 EUR a year for creating, distributing, collecting and destroying coins and notes. There are other downsides: 25 per cent of employees in Swedish retailers have been victims of violence during robberies, and there are calls to end the use of cash for theft prevention purposes. And obviously cash is a non-digital asset which cannot be spent on online purchases.
Mobile payments are therefore seen as the “new cash” and the way forward to bridge offline and online worlds. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users globally and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, the market opportunity is huge. Juniper predicts that 50 billion USD in worldwide sales revenue will be generated by Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments by 2014. PayPal expects that its volume of payments processed via mobile devices will exceed 3 billion USD this year. The company also predicts that by 2015, consumers will be able to leave their wallets at home as digital currencies replace traditional payment methods.
However there is some way to go. Research found that 90% of UK consumers have not heard of NFC, and more than two thirds have not come across the term “mobile wallet”. The technology and business case may be in place, but whether it’s time to cash out or not is still up for debate.
Appeared on MHP blog: http://www.mhpc.com/blog/cash-or-cash-out
4 November 2010
The bankers are back in town
Actually they were back in Amsterdam last week, where they attended SIBOS, the biggest global gathering of financial services providers. And SIBOS was in a happy mood this year. Officially, there were 8,700 participants (an impressive 3,200 more than in 2009 when SIBOS took place in Hong Kong), 209 exhibitors and 175 speakers. All of them were positive and upbeat, you could see a lot of new business coming through and media interest was lively, with more than 100 journalists in attendance. Everyone was keen to agree that cloud computing changes the way banks operate, Basel III actually means something this time and that the Germans should finally stop complaining about the European payments system Sepa because it's too late now.
SIBOS also was in an appy mood. You could see a number of onsite demos such as peterevans' Simply app, the UK's first self-execution stockbroking application, and quite a few people predict that this is just the start of a new era. And some were right in saying that when you see such amazing apps, all the non-virtual stuff is suddenly much less exciting. SIBOS 2010 also debuted its first dedicated panel on social networking. Needless to say the room was packed. As conservative as it is, the industry has started talking about new media at last, and it'll be interesting to see how things develop over the years to come.
You could say that SIBOS is an indicator of the health of the banking industry, and this year it appeared in rude health. According to official records, 4,518 full week passes were sold for SIBOS 2010. With each full week pass coming in at 2,800 EUR, this is some very nice revenue for SWIFT, the conference organiser. But we know it's worth it when you get something out of it. And everyone got something out of it indeed: participants got a feeling of optimism, exhibitors got plenty of leads, speakers got plenty of attention and cab drivers got away with their random pricing of fares.
SIBOS also was in an appy mood. You could see a number of onsite demos such as peterevans' Simply app, the UK's first self-execution stockbroking application, and quite a few people predict that this is just the start of a new era. And some were right in saying that when you see such amazing apps, all the non-virtual stuff is suddenly much less exciting. SIBOS 2010 also debuted its first dedicated panel on social networking. Needless to say the room was packed. As conservative as it is, the industry has started talking about new media at last, and it'll be interesting to see how things develop over the years to come.
You could say that SIBOS is an indicator of the health of the banking industry, and this year it appeared in rude health. According to official records, 4,518 full week passes were sold for SIBOS 2010. With each full week pass coming in at 2,800 EUR, this is some very nice revenue for SWIFT, the conference organiser. But we know it's worth it when you get something out of it. And everyone got something out of it indeed: participants got a feeling of optimism, exhibitors got plenty of leads, speakers got plenty of attention and cab drivers got away with their random pricing of fares.
Appeared on MHP blog: http://www.mhpc.com/blog/bankers-are-back-town
15 October 2009
Shake your moneymaker
Amidst much hand-wringing over the slump in sterling over recent months, perhaps it's worth taking a slightly broader view of currency. A good while ago, our ancestors were looking for a medium of exchange to trade goods, and experimented with various things such as furs, stones, iron bars and blocks of salt. All proved to be fairly unsuccessful until gold evolved to be the most practical medium. For many years, most currencies were backed by physical gold, and the price of gold determined the value of a currency.
In today's society, the basic act of commerce has not changed, but entrepreneurs try to find new alternative ways to facilitate transactions. With the help of their new own currency, local retailers in Brixton hope to boost spending in the area, and this is just a recent example of a long list of micro-money and local denominations. There are more than 2,500 different local currency systems worldwide. All for a reason, probably.
The Internet has also created a range of digital currencies to be able to sell and pay for goods online. The Wall Street Journal recently produced a video covering this new world of peer to peer finance which also features our partner Hub Culture’s Ven, the only digital currency that can be used both online and off.
Whether this is the future of currencies, and the future of money indeed, remains to be seen. Clearly, the way we're going to pay for goods in the future is tightly connected to the way we'll interact and communicate in the future. And as far as this can be assessed today, there is an irreversible trend towards an even more digital life as we know it.
In today's society, the basic act of commerce has not changed, but entrepreneurs try to find new alternative ways to facilitate transactions. With the help of their new own currency, local retailers in Brixton hope to boost spending in the area, and this is just a recent example of a long list of micro-money and local denominations. There are more than 2,500 different local currency systems worldwide. All for a reason, probably.
The Internet has also created a range of digital currencies to be able to sell and pay for goods online. The Wall Street Journal recently produced a video covering this new world of peer to peer finance which also features our partner Hub Culture’s Ven, the only digital currency that can be used both online and off.
Whether this is the future of currencies, and the future of money indeed, remains to be seen. Clearly, the way we're going to pay for goods in the future is tightly connected to the way we'll interact and communicate in the future. And as far as this can be assessed today, there is an irreversible trend towards an even more digital life as we know it.
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