Going Cashless at the Point of Sale: Hits and Misses in Developed Countries

by Sarah Rotman

Last month, Ignacio Mas and I completed the latest publication from the CGAP Technology Program - Going Cashless at the Point of Sale: Hits and Misses in Developed Countries. Instead of focusing on branchless banking experiences in developing countries, we decided to look at the experiences of electronic money in developed countries. Our paper reviews some of the bigger failures and some of the more promising experiences in the use of smartcards and mobile phone as payment platforms in developed countries. Over the next few weeks, I will highlight excerpts from this paper which focus on the six different schemes we analyzed. While the developed world context in which these initiatives were launched are very different from the developing world context in which CGAP works, nonetheless there are important lessons. Here is an excerpt from the introduction of the paper.

Storing value electronically…sending value electronically…many people living in developed countries take these things for granted because making electronic transactions are part of everyday routines for them. After all, who would think twice about making a payment or getting cash from a debit or credit card?

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