March 20, 2018
Just 6.6 percent of all payments to Australian businesses were made with cash in 2017, down 56 percent from 2012, according to the APAC-based banking research and analysis firm East & Partners.
Credit card payments also decreased at the point of sale — by nearly 20 percent — but enjoyed a 184 percent surge online.
Since 2012, payments via bank-issued debit card have increased 78 percent and now comprise nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of all transactions.
These statistics derived from interviews with more than 2,240 Australian merchants align with ATM withdrawal figures released by the Reserve Bank of Australia in March, East & Partners said in a press release.
According to the RBA, ATM withdrawals fell 7.7 percent in 2016 compared with 2015. Withdrawal value fell approximately four percent, the release said.
"Cash has well and truly lost its mantle as king," Martin Smith, head of markets analysis at East & Partners, said of the Australian payments market.
"The emergence of contactless, mobile and wearable payment technology has pushed the preference for debit and credit cards beyond cash usage, as more consumers opt for those for lower value purchases."
Mirroring consumer trends, merchants report that their chief payment product priorities over the next two years are internet and mobile payment platforms.
