The use of cash as the most common means of payment reinforced last year the downward trend that began in 2014. Only 35.9% of citizens choose banknotes and coins, according to the latest survey published by the Bank of Spain. Alternative means of payment, by contrast, continued to grow in 2020, especially card payments, the preferred option for 54.1% of respondents. These findings also apply to small businesses: 64.8% choose card payments compared to 26.4% who use cash.
Customers want to have all payment options available so they can choose the one that suits them best at any given time. Convenience and speed are the two main reasons driving them to want to pay by card more and more. User experience shapes their preferences, beyond other considerations such as the specific circumstances of the health crisis that we have not yet overcome. Only 2.5% of the population justifies the change in their payment habits towards card payments as a hygiene measure in response to the pandemic. And what is even more significant: 69.1% of citizens and 61.3% of establishments that now prefer card payments as their most common means of payment do not expect to change their minds in the future.
It is difficult to resist the benefits that innovation offers us. Throughout every era of history, it has been essential to improving our standard of living, even though it may sometimes have detractors driven by nostalgia for times past. Innovation becomes especially important the greater the challenge humanity faces, as has happened in the search for a vaccine during this pandemic and as is the case with climate change, which threatens our planet.
Digitalisation, understood as the penetration of the internet into our lives, is perhaps the best example of innovation today. If it was already advancing at great speed, it has taken a giant leap forward during this health crisis. Thanks to digitalisation, everything continued to function during the toughest moments of lockdown, when it seemed the world had come to a standstill. Remote working—something most companies viewed with suspicion until recently—has enabled us to keep moving forward and has become part of everyday life, as has digital access to all kinds of public and private services. The digitalisation efforts made by banks in the past have ensured that the economy did not come to a halt. Now, more than 82% of Spaniards prefer to carry out their banking tasks without having to visit a branch. And more than 75% are aware of the risks of cybercrime.
Undoubtedly, the speed of change can cause vertigo. Today’s increasingly digital society demands constant innovation to respond to emerging challenges. Artificial intelligence, the shift in job profiles that will be in demand in the future, and the need to ensure no one is left behind from the resulting benefits are some of the ingredients in this equation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) advocates for a more digital society as a prelude to greater economic growth and prosperity to combat inequality, something it calls the ‘inclusive revolution,’ especially in emerging countries. In more advanced countries, digitalization represents an opportunity to grow more and better through new opportunities that we discover every day and that allow us to improve our quality of life.
In this context of rapid change, it is clear that we must learn to use new technologies. Making the most of them to improve our quality of life is, to a greater or lesser extent, everyone’s outstanding task. It is no coincidence that the European recovery plan, which lays the foundations for the European economy of the future, focuses on digital and environmental transformation. Banks are aware of this; it is part of our strategy, and in this way we are prepared and willing to continue providing support, as we always have.
José Luis Martínez Campuzano, spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association
