Non-cash Payments in the UK will Near £1.5 Trillion Mark by 2026

The value of non-cash payments in the UK will reach £1.44 trillion by 2026, research from global law firm Paul Hastings shows.

This is a 26% increase on 2016’s figure of £1.14 trillion, with there being 19.1 billion contactless transactions per year within a decade.

The research, conducted in association with the Centre for Economics & Business Research (Cebr) and YouGov, examined current attitudes of businesses and consumers towards alternative payments and their potential use of future payment methods.

Further 2026 forecasts from the UK research include;

• 68% of all transactions will be non-cash transactions, up from 55% today
• 74% of businesses will accept alternative payment methods, a leap from 2016’s figure of 41%

The Future of Payments report says:

“As the decline of cash continues, alternatives are rising to take its place. And it is not just cash they are leaving in their wake. Last year [In 2015] cash accounted for less than half of all payments made by consumers, businesses and financial institutions in the UK for the first time. In the first three months of 2016, meanwhile, use of both contactless credit and debit cards overtook cheques.

“These are just a few milestones as we witness “the slow death of cash”, and are reflected in trends in the U.S., where non-cash payments continue to grow relentlessly. But while it’s long been clear that consumers and businesses are walking away from cash, it’s less clear where they’re going.”