Cash Goes Bananas

The Cavendish banana, the world’s most consumed fruit, is at risk of extinction due to climate change, viruses and unsustainable agricultural practices. The banana’s decline, suggests Tortoise Media, a UK news organisation, ‘is yet another flashing red light in an economic ecosystem that has ruthlessly prioritised convenience over resilience.’ 

Much the same could be said of cash, use of which is similarly in decline in high-income countries around the world owing to a payments ‘ecosystem’ which has also ruthlessly prioritised convenience over resilience.

Maintaining public access to cash is relatively expensive for banks, who have to pay cash-in-transit companies to replenish their branches and ATMs. If the use case can be made that public demand has fallen below the threshold at which the cash cycle is economically viable, then it would make commercial sense for banks to cease the practice (unless their banking licence was conditional on continuing to supply the public with access to cash).