For sums between SEK 100 and SEK 500, 22 per cent said that they prefer cash. Second, it appears that cash imparts a sense of security and our survey showed that 65 per cent felt very secure about using cash as compared to 35 per cent for cards. The term security may mean many different things, but the feeling of having the entire transaction under control is central. A card transaction may feel less concrete and be harder to understand. It may also be difficult to estimate the risk of fraud, for example as a result of skimming. We know that older people are much more prone to use cash and less prone to use cards than younger people. The difference is also substantial. Third, appropriate substitutes for cash are not always available. Although cards are accepted almost everywhere, there are few alternatives when it comes to payments between private individuals, for example on second-hand markets on the Internet. Using your Internet bank in the evening to make a transfer between two bank accounts in order to pay for a sofa is not always a smooth and easy alternative to cash. It was in such cases that cheques performed an important function. Fourth, cash is one way of storing a value and it is often wise to maintain a certain liquidity reserve in the form of cash. However, despite everything I have said about the use of cash in Sweden and internationally, there is a lot that we do not know or cannot explain.
The value of the banknotes and coins in circulation has fallen from 9.6% of GDP in 1950 to 2.9% in 2010. So, the question is: Should cash be compared with the extinct Neanderthals or the surviving Crocodiles? But why is this of interest to the Riksbank? Well, a first obvious answer is because it is the Riksbank that issues banknotes and coins. Another, and more complicated, answer is because one of the tasks of the Riksbank is to promote a safe and efficient payment system. This may sound a little high-flown, but it means, among other things, that we should promote the development of safe and efficient payments. This is why we have a natural interest in cards and cash. Hence, we are interested in the evolution of the market for payments, and that is why I am standing before you today. What I intend to talk about today is why I believe that cash will continue to play an important role in our payment system for the foreseeable future (even though not 85 million years) and why cards and other technological developments will not be able to fully take the place of cash. Ironically, part of the explanation for this lies in the strong position that debit and credit cards hold on the Swedish market. As usual I would like to make clear that my speech is an expression of my own views and that it may not necessarily be shared by my colleagues in the Board of the Riksbank.