It is equally clear that payments continue to migrate away from cash and become less visible to the customer as consumers shift purchases to online and mobile channels. While we are unlikely to move to a 100% cashless society in the near future, the incompatibility between cash and digital marketplaces or digital platforms means that payments will continue to move towards cashless solutions.
An overview of payment trends would be incomplete without mentioning crypto-assets, even though they remain controversial and are still being debated. The high volatility of crypto-asset value shows that they cannot be a reliable store of value, and their global use as a means of payment remains marginal. Nevertheless, they have demonstrated the potential of the blockchain technology behind it.