The CashTech Forum – Where Cash and Digital Technology Meet

CashEssentials – the think tank specialising in payments and monetary systems – has launched the CashTech Forum to promote innovation and technology, thereby ensuring a sustainable and future-proof cash ecosystem.

CashTech brings together innovators, start-ups, scale-ups, and incumbent organisations, to leverage technology that facilitates access to cash, improves its acceptance, and generally improves the efficiency of the circulation of cash throughout the economy.

The argument against cash is that digital payments have grown exponentially in the coronavirus pandemic, capping decades of sustained growth in new ways to shop and pay, ranging from contactless cards to payment apps and the recent explosion in cryptocurrencies. Cash, it is held, is under existential pressure.

But central banks have recorded exceptional spikes in cash demand during the pandemic as consumers boost their precautionary holdings, confirming the role of cash as a crisis safe haven. Never has there been so much cash in circulation. And yet, public and investor interest focus more on those seeking to displace cash than innovators intent on facilitating its use.

But, says CashEssentials, what if digital could be harnessed to preserve cash – instead of working to overturn it – by simplifying cash usage, shortening the cash cycle, and reducing handling costs for retailers?

CashTech is designed to offer just that perspective, and has already assembled a fast-growing group of transnational technology companies that use digital tools to provide cash services. Its founding members are Cashway, Kassh, Pipit Global, Shrap, Socash, Sonect and Viafinetch.

The CashTech Forum is open to all interested in further promoting innovation in the cash cycle. More information can be found at www.cashessentials.org.