A Cashless Society Working Party

Objectives

The objectives of the Working Party are:

• to consider the effects, benefits and problems that might emerge from a Cashless Society
• to learn from research already conducted and from experiences gained in other economic regions
• to publicise the findings of the working party internally within the IFoA by means of one or more of: i) a sessional paper, ii) presentations at actuarial conferences both home and abroad, iii) article for The Actuary or iv) other methods as deemed suitable
• If thought necessary, to widen the findings to a wider audience of interested parties

The Working Party will concentrate particularly on the UK however will draw on evidence emanating from developments in other countries/economic areas from their experiences both now and in the past.

Progress to date:

In phase 1, the working party delivered an interim paper that focused on general pros and cons of a cashless society, financial exclusion with an M-Pesa case study, Negative Interest Rates Policy, a stakeholder SWOT analysis, risks and issues of a cashless society, and a comprehensive chronicle of international developments for the topic in 2017. The working party presented a sessional event in January 2018.

Working Towards:

In phase 2, the working party sets out to focus on a subset of topics with more rigour, including:

Economic impacts, financial stability and effects on Life insurance, pension funds and ALM managers.

Transition management with stakeholder engagement, legal & regulatory frameworks, APT tax and political willpower.

QR codes and relevant technology developments.

Central Bank Digital Currencies and Capital market potential for digital currencies.

Outputs

Environmental Sustainability of a Cashless Society 

A Cashless Society - Benefits, Risks and Issues

A Cashless Society - Benefits, Risks and Issues Addendum

A Cashless Society - Negative Interet Rate policies - 2018 update 

The above session paper took place at Staple Inn on 22nd January 2018 - view the video