(Newswire.net — January 14, 2021) — The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is making countries around the world think twice about cash payments and Canadians are not left out. Many countries including the US started drifting more toward cashless payment for hygienic purposes, in order to prevent the spread of the pandemic. And besides the pandemic making the use of cashless payments, Canadians and the world at large came to realize that electronic payments are more convenient, safer, and faster. Thus the question arises whether Canadian residents are ready to completely put out the use of cash or not. Reports from the Canadian Payment Methods and Trends Report shows that there are still prospects for cash payment.
The CPMT report has been showing progressive use of electronic payment methods in Canada for several years. The report showed how Canadian businesses and customers conducted their transactions. The reports showed several years back that new methods of payment were quickly growing, although standard channels of payment such as cheques, and cash were still leading payment methods. However, during a recent report, on 4th December 2019, by Payment Canada, which always provides detailed information about the payment trends in the country, there were more electronic transactions.
The 2019 reports from Canadian Payment Methods and Trends (CPMT), indicated that between 2013 and 2018, there were more than 20 billion transactions valued at $10 trillion. Shockingly, according to the reports, traditional payment methods were declining very quickly while more innovative methods of payment were taking over financial transactions in the country. It was noted that Point-of-Sale transactions were overtaken by electronic payments. However, it was also noticed that cash payments still had their grounds in the country. However, since a lot of businesses moved to operate online in the country, electronic payment methods became the new convenient channels, with active industries such as the casino industry moving online to stay in business and to avoid the spread of the pandemic. And according to https://canada-casino.org/, a lot of Canadian online casinos are adopting more innovative methods of payments such as crypto payments, e-wallets such as PayPal, although they still maintain fiat payments.
The reason why cash payments were still not declining is that most people consider it as their favorite method of payment. And it (cash) accounts for over 4.5 billion transactions, which in 2018 were worth $92.1 billion. This report uncovered a whole lot of information with regards to the various channels of payment in Canada.
Major Findings
- It was discovered that consumers still make use of cash heavily as a percentage of 15 consumers preferred its use more.
- However, electronic payment activities for all transaction volume was 733%.
- And between 2013 and 2018, there was a $468 increase in the size of transactions, with it reaching up to 22% in 201.
- And payment in cash got a total transaction volume of 21%.
More research in August 2019 by CPMT showed that people could not do without cash payments of financial transactions, and that cash will always be included because of its features and general acceptability. It was discovered that about 90% of Canadians relied a lot on cash for transactions. It is no doubt that the use of cash is still declining in the country but people still prefer cash payments.
The path that Canada is currently taking is very similar to the stance taken by Sweden. As it was discovered that even when there are more innovative methods of payment, there are more vital reasons why cash is still kept as an essential method of payment because of its resilience and inclusion.
This still doesn’t change the fact that electronic payments are still very widespread and quickly improving.