Len Augsburger forwarded this New York Times article on the advanced state of cashless transactions in Sweden. Thanks. -Editor
Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers. Even the Abba Museum, despite
being a shrine to the 1970s pop group that wrote “Money, Money, Money,” considers cash so last-century that it does not accept bills and
coins.
Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and
plastic.
This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by
the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country’s banks no longer accept or
dispense cash.
At the Abba Museum, “we don’t want to be behind the times by taking cash while cash is dying out,” said Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former Abba
member who has leveraged the band’s legacy into a sprawling business empire, including the museum.
Not everyone is cheering. Sweden’s embrace of electronic payments has alarmed consumer organizations and critics who warn of a rising
threat to privacy and increased vulnerability to sophisticated Internet crimes. Last year, the number of electronic fraud cases surged to
140,000, more than double the amount a decade ago, according to Sweden’s Ministry of Justice.
“It might be trendy,” said Bjorn Eriksson, a former director of the Swedish police force and former president of Interpol. “But there
are all sorts of risks when a society starts to go cashless.”
Cash is certainly not dead. The Swedish central bank, the Riksbank, predicts it will decline fast but still be circulating in 20 years.
Recently, the Riksbank issued newly redesigned coins and notes.
But for an increasing number of consumers, cash is no longer a habit.
At the University of Gothenburg, students said they almost exclusively used cards and electronic payments. “No one uses cash,” said
Hannah Ek, 23. “I think our generation can live without it.”
To read the complete article, see:
In Sweden, a Cash-Free
Future Nears (www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/international/in-sweden-a-cash-free-future-nears.html?_r=1)
Wayne Homren, Editor
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