Cash

Whether they process cards, bank accounts, cash, or whatever comes next, digital payment systems must be reliable, flexible and ever-advancing, writes Michael Kaplan, chief revenue officer at PayNearMe.

In the tug-of-war over merchants refusing either cash or cards embroiling local governments in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia, the Iowa State Fair is taking the middle ground. Beginning next year, all fair vendors will be required to accept cash, cards and contactless payments through First Data’s Clover devices.

With retailers seeking to discourage cash use and billers increasingly going digital, PayNearMe stands in the middle seeking to further enable the very people who depend on being able to use cash: the underbanked and unbanked.

Battle lines are hardening in the fight against stores that eschew cash, as New York City’s Committee on Consumer Affairs plans to hear arguments Thursday on a proposal to ban cashless stores like Amazon Go.

While consumer spending on Valentine’s Day doesn’t approach that of the larger holidays, certain retailers — such as jewelers and florists — benefit more than others, while restaurants, bars and other dining establishments tend to see significantly more traffic for those couples who want an evening out. Increasingly, it’s also a special day for pets.

The pushback on stores that don’t accept cash seems to be gaining momentum, with Philadelphia the latest municipality to consider a law that would ban cash-free shops.

Visa for years has used its sponsorship of the Super Bowl to promote contactless and mobile payments, but it hasn’t squeezed cash out of the event yet.

For the U.S. to move forward, education will be required to teach users how to utilize new technology to manage their finances, says Katy Gibson, vice president of product applications at Envestnet Yodlee.

Banks, retailers and technology companies have spent years relentlessly working to replace cash with plastic, digital or mobile alternatives. And cash has hit back hard.

Leveraging the trust relationship the bank already enjoys with its customers, based on robust security, engagements can go beyond run-of-the-mill transactions, writes Sherif Samy, senior vice president of North America at Entersekt.

Nestled among the waves of tourists and commuters near Grand Central Terminal is a spot were a “no cash” store is working, free from political pressures. But its success still suggests that paperless payments are a niche play.

While credit cards have been around since the 1950s and debit cards introduced years later, they both have become indispensable to the modern consumer. In fact, in certain retail sectors consumers can only use payment cards or mobile payments to make a purchase.

The world’s biggest digital coin began life promising to become “electronic cash,” but bitcoin and its swarm of imitators are slipping deeper into the shadows of traditional payment services.

From Gen Z to baby boomers, a new study reveals credit union members are more likely pull out their plastic at the point of sale than any other payment method.

The Bank of England issued a challenge for consumers who usually pay with cash to go cashless for a week, as an educational experience prior to its upcoming conference, Future Forum 2018.

Cash is unlikely to go anywhere, while application programming interfaces promise a wealth of new innovation, according to Devon Watson, CMO of Diebold Nixdorf.

They’ve kept tabs on the movement of cash into their till and into their bank accounts but have missed the wealth of data by not monitoring the path and treatment of cash within their organization, according to Rory Herriman, executive vice president and CTO for Software and Digital Systems at SUZOHapp.

Cash is king when it comes to community events, and event organizers know this; which is why they hire qualified, professional mobile ATM companies to manage the ATMs they have on site, writes Yonas Marcos, president and CEO of Star Financial Services.

Even among the experts in the payments industry, people still use cash. Banks can't ignore this, according to Paul Amisano, senior vice president for enterprise digital and payments strategy at BB&T.

If a merchant seeking to avoid credit card fees turned to cash discounting, it was at least partly because the other option — putting a surcharge on credit card use — was complicated and illegal in many states.