Title: On the War On Cash and its spoils

Authors: Leo Van Hove

Addresses: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Room 2C147, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: This paper brings together a number of recent studies for Belgium and the Netherlands to show that the War On Cash (WOC) is a cause worth fighting for. It builds on two central bank studies to show that the social cost of cash is substantial, and that society would benefit from a switch to debit cards and electronic purses. As for the most effective way of bringing about such a switch, evidence is presented according to which the introduction of cost-based pricing of payment instruments would have a bigger impact than simply raising the number of EFTPOS terminals.

Keywords: payment instruments; debit cards; electronic purses; efficiency; social cost; cost-based pricing; Belgium; The Netherlands; e-banking; electronic banking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBANK.2008.020438

International Journal of Electronic Banking, 2008 Vol.1 No.1, pp.36 - 45

Published online: 24 Sep 2008 *

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