“In times of crisis, cash is king”, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego once said. It has been over a year since the world was hit by the global disease COVID-19. The shock and impact it had on everybody was so immense and overwhelming that many businesses either temporarily stopped their operations and many, sadly had to completely shut down, leaving many members of the workforce financially paralyzed.
The said global pandemic was regarded as a reset button for many and for others, it was a test of endurance, character, and ability to reinvent. Many businesses changed the way they finalize their transactions. Many organizations switched to digital and e-commerce, prompting their designated customers to switch or change their payment schemes, too. It was the change not many were ready for.
Cash and payments have dramatically changed during the global pandemic. It has accelerated many changes in the industry and many have thought about doing things differently. One of which is digital currencies being one of the things that banks are looking at. Though many consumers have changed their habits when Covid hit the world, the digital transformation from a consumer standpoint has been happening for years. It was only when the pandemic happened that it accelerated.
Global health experts warned the world of transmitting the virus through physical contacts and that includes usage of cash. This has prompted many companies to change the way they run their businesses. But not many globally are able to shift to this arrangement. It seemed like this was how the future had been set up for us.
That statement was something any harbinger of doom can say and can immutably convince us that we are going to see cash disappearing. Contactless payments made a huge splash both in the digital and physical stores. The rise of digital currencies and payments also paved the way to more risks digitally such as fraud and similar acts of digital malpractices.
Months after the deadly pandemic had incapacitated many business entities, leading health experts have come up with a vaccine to combat covid. This has sparked and renewed hope for everybody. As Jens Seidl said things have been opening up again and coming back on planes and everything seems to be returning to some kind of normalcy. Though many parts of the world are still grounded.
For the most part, the global health crisis had introduced many to a world of cashless payments, and the digital payment landscape started to permeate through varied businesses. And this could potentially make business owners completely transform the way they do transactions i.e not accepting cash payments any longer. Jens Seidl gave an example during his conversation on The Cash News Podcast on how this could be problematic for many. In the UK, many still feel that they would struggle if they haven’t had access to cash. And that was a bit of a wake up call for people as well to see we can’t just let cashless society develop.
During episode 2, Tom Meehan emphasizes the strong need for cash. At the same time, there is a need to be prepared for the future. To understand what is happening is to understand how it will impact the cash business. Yes, digital payments made a huge dent when many businesses went digital but cash is still king, and the crown remains.
