Debit cards just overtook cash as the most widely used payment method in Switzerland.
Some 35% consumer transactions in stores were settled using debit cards last year, with physical money accounting for 30%, according to a Swiss National Bank survey published Tuesday. That compares with 21% and 70% respectively in 2017. Another 18% were settled using mobile payment apps and 14% via credit cards.
Cash is an emotive issue in Switzerland, where every inhabitant on average holds the equivalent of $10,481 in bills and coins. That’s the second-largest holding of all economies where the Bank for International Settlements collates data.
But over the past years, the signs of dwindling usage have become clearer. The SNB said in October that public transport operators have plans to curtail transactions in bills or coins, and payment apps — especially the popular domestic solution Twint — are now more widely accepted at businesses than cards.
Regardless of this, the Swiss government said last year that it will support a popular initiative seeking to enshrine the existence of cash in the constitution. Unless the campaigners of a right-wing group withdraw their proposal, a vote on this will be held in the coming years.
The SNB maintains that it remains agnostic to the means of payment citizens want to use. Still, the central bank, government and private sector have convened an expert group to identify problems in the supply of physical money if they arise. Publicly, President Martin Schlegel has reminded citizens that the availability of bills and coins is also determined by how widely they are used.
“It’s about preventing a vicious circle,” he said last year when the SNB unveiled plans for a new banknote series. “If the population wants to keep the current availability of cash, then it has to keep using cash.”
