That scenario would raise several potential concerns: payment services offered by large financial institutions could become the only game in town, giving them increased market power; people without adequate banking services would find it even more difficult to participate fully in the economy; people would lose the ability to conduct transactions privately; and the system could have a single point of failure, making it more vulnerable to computer system breakdowns and power outages.
____________ 14  Bank for International Settlement BIS Innovation Hub work on central bank digital currency (CBDC)  11  Although cash is used less in percentage terms (from 30% in 2007 for households payments to 13% in 2019), the amount of cash in the hands of the public has been growing at an average of 3.7% per year since 1995.15 Graph 2: Cash in the hands of the public  Cash in the hands of the public, 2017 prices, $ per person 1995 to 2021 1,400  $ per person  1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 avg $ per person, 2017 prices  We know that New Zealanders consider cash to be important and they support its ongoing availability.