Written by Liz O’Driscoll, Head of Innovation, Civica The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the UK’s journey towards a cashless society. In March, ATM withdrawals plummeted by 60%, with more citizens turning online to pay for goods and services. This dash from cash led to UK Finance predicting that cash payments will fall to just 9% of all transactions by 2028. With new payment technologies making it easier and safer, and the acceleration of cloud adoption fuelling innovation in this area, there are many obvious benefits to going cashless. But research shows that 41% of citizens still currently prefer to pay with cash. So is the move to a completely cashless society, such as Sweden where just 1% of their GDP circulates as cash, a good thing for us and our public services?