• Doron Cohen, CEO at Covercy


• 13.09.2016 01:15 pm
undisclosed

Nearly five years on since the Bank Of England last introduced a new banknote, the benefit of circulating a new five pound note now is quite questionable, due to a payments revolution currently underway in the UK.

Britain is well on its way to becoming a cashless society, as last year, for the first time, notes and coins were used in less than half of all payments. A key driver in this has been the adoption of contactless cards, with monthly spending by this method reaching a record £1.5 billion this year, roughly three times the level of 2015. Not only this, some long-standing British institutions are actually becoming cashless too, such as Transport for London (TFL) who banned cash on the buses in 2014 and has saved £24 million in cash-handling costs already.

From a security point of view, banknotes are a nightmare due to being untraceable, with at least half in circulation being used for a range of illegal activities. UK businesses bear the brunt of this problem, with over 240,000 counterfeit notes being discovered last year alone. The financial powers-that-be should focus future initiatives instead on helping contactless to grow further, especially amongst businesses in the UK. Moving to a cashless society has immense benefits for British firms as such payments are fully traceable, secure and also decrease the risk of money laundering