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pasta, others were doing the same
with cash.
“When the whole pandemic kicked in
there were a lot of large transactions
where people took a lot of money out
of the bank at a time,” Worthington
says.

“During a crisis like this, people feel a
bit insecure, so you’d rather have cash
to hand.” businesses from refusing cash. And during a tough economic recovery
it’s they who will suffer most without
The Reserve Bank said some people Worthington says once the pandemic freedom to pay with cash.
were withdrawing millions — the kind is over, Australia should consider doing
of behaviour last seen during the a similar thing. We still have our share This article is the first in a series on the
height of the global financial crisis. of unbanked or underbanked people. future of money by SmartCompany

Less cash, but not quite
cashless
Handling digital payments
Worthington isn’t convinced of a cash-
free future.

“Cash will continue to decline, but it
won’t be eradicated,” he says. Step 1
Present the EFTPOS machine to the customer for payment.
“We might be a less cash society, but
we won’t be a cashless society.”

That’s because for many of society’s Step 2
most vulnerable people, a cash-free Make sure the customer can see the total amount clearly
without touching the machine.
society can be incredibly exclusionary.
“People with disabilities, the elderly,
people in rural communities with less Step 3
Ask the passenger to tap/swipe their card, so that you don’t
access to technology, newly arrived have to touch the card.
migrants without a bank account,
they’re all excluded,” Worthington says.

Sweden, the poster child for a cash- Step 4
free world, is a case in point. There are If you handled the card or receipt, sanitise your hands.
fears it moved away from cash so fast
that many who relied on it were left
behind, and it’s now so tough to even
find an ATM in Stockholm that the Step 5
country recently passed a law forcing Clean the terminal with an appropriate disinfectant
or detergent.
banks to offer cash.
And in the US, there’s a growing
pushback against cashlessness at Help reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus (COVID-19).
a local level: in January New York Keep your hands and payment machines clean at all times.
joined New Jersey, San Francisco and For guidance on how to clean frequently touched surfaces, visit https://bit.ly/2wh9Ibl
Philadelphia in passing a law stopping
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