The high quality of the speakers and the guests and the diversity of their background make me an optimist that we will have a fruitful Conference, which will broaden our knowledge with new experiences. I wish you a successful work in the Conference and to the representatives from abroad I wish a very pleasant stay in Macedonia. Thank you for your attention! BIS Review 74/2008  7
About a year and a half ago I stopped carrying a wallet with room for cash– all I needed on a daily basis was a debit card and my phone. I am not alone. And is this shift is not exclusive to London – from 2017 to 2019 the number of people using cash just once a month or less in the UK more than doubled to 7.4 million.1 The result has been a marked increase in digital payments, particularly card payments, and a steady decline in the use of cash for retail transactions. In mid-2016 cards overtook cash for the first time as the most frequently-used payment in the UK. And the trend hasn’t looked back. This doesn’t mean that cash is not still important for some. There are important inclusion implications that I won’t do justice to here but that deserve a mention – while UK Finance estimates that 98 percent of people in the UK had a debit card in 2019, there are still groups that continue to rely on cash, with this reliance relating  1  See UK Finance Press Release: Cards used for half of payments for first time last year. https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/press/pressreleases/cards-used-half-payments-first-time-last-year 2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  2  to factors spanning age, income, disability and geography. The UK government has said that the UK is committed to ensuring that those who rely on cash will continue to be able to access it, and the Bank of England supports this important agenda.