Is It Time to Pay Attention?
So, why does this matter now? Because the slow, steady march away from physical cash has become a full-blown sprint. The pandemic certainly gave it a shove, but this is a one way street. Younger generations barely know what a chequebook is, and businesses are waking up to the costs and security risks of handling paper money. This isn’t a fleeting trend, it’s a fundamental behavioural shift.
Of course, it’s not a risk free punt. The payments world is brutally competitive. You have the old guard, the tech giants, and a thousand nimble startups all fighting for a piece of the pie. Regulators are always hovering, ready to change the rules of the game. But the underlying growth story, a world moving inexorably towards digital transactions, seems to me to be one of the more solid long term narratives out there. PayPay’s arrival in the U.S. could be a timely reminder of that.