Citi and Imperial College London Launch Latest Digital Money Report

Citi, in partnership with Imperial College London, has launched its third annual digital money report, which explores the current state of digital money adoption – the migration from cash to credit/ debit cards, stored value instruments and other non-paper based mechanisms – across the world and analyses the results of Citi’s 2016 Digital Money Index.

The report, titled “Releasing the Flow of Digital Money: Hitting the tipping point of adoption”, identifies five “flows” that represent the global movement of money between governments, businesses and consumers.  The report highlights that addressing flows that have considerable reach and/or are repetitive in nature can help drive digital money adoption by shifting consumer behavior in the longer term.

Sandeep Dave, Director for Global Digital Strategy at Citi commented:  “The themes from previous findings have been clear: the widespread use of digital money has real benefits, but adoption will receive a boost from solutions that are tailored to specific markets, often developed in partnership with other important players.”

The Index also highlights that the roles of culture and differences of human behavior are increasingly important, emphasizing that a number of less mature countries begin by making progress and developing the necessary infrastructure, but then reach an “adoption plateau”, at which point even the right structures can’t shift some weighty cultural barriers.

Sandeep Dave continues: “This year’s Index moves beyond solutions to explore the striking role of culture and the subtleties of human behavior in determining people’s propensity to adopt. Crucial is the ‘tipping point’ – the point at which people’s familiarity with and use of digital money solutions pushes adoption towards the mainstream, generating huge monetary and social benefits.”

Professor David Gann, Vice-President, Development and Innovation, Imperial College London commented:“This year’s Digital Money Report reveals further valuable insights into the growing impact that digitization of monetary flows continues to have on society including governments, businesses and consumers around the globe.”