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Перспектива отказа от наличных расчетов и переход к новым формам бесконтактных платежей как последствие коронавирусной инфекции
The prospect of abandoning of cash operations and transition to new forms of contactless payments as a consequence of coronavirus infection
Михеичева Алена Анатольевна
Студент 2 курса
Факультет международных экономических отношений Финансовый университет при правительстве Российской Федерации
Российская Федерация, Москва e-mail: alyona. mikheicheva@gmail.com
Mikheicheva Alena
Student 2 term
Faculty of international economic relations Financial university under the government of the Russian Federation
Russian Federation, Moscow e-mail: alyona. mikheicheva@gmail.com
Аннотация.
В статье рассматриваются последствия коронавирусной инфекции, инициирующие сокращение денежной массы и переход к новой ступени финансовых отношений, анализируются факторы, популяризирующие использование безналичных платежей в России и мире, а также возможность перехода к полностью безналичному обществу и влияние новых платежных способов на жизнь человека. В работе анализируются основные тенденции в сфере бесконтактных платежей, преимущества организации денежных расчетов с использованием передовых технологий, рассмотрены достоинства и недостатки видоизменения платёжной системы, подразумевающие под собой исследование интереса банков и финансовых институтов к изменению формы банковских операций. В настоящее время наибольшее значение имеет заинтересованность потребителей в частом применения безналичных платежей в связи с удобством использования кредитных и банковских карт и новых технологий.
Annotation.
The article examines the consequences of coronavirus infection, initiating a reduction in the money supply and the transition to a new stage of financial relations, analyzes the factors that popularize the use of non-cash payments in Russia and worldwide, as well as the possibility of transition to a completely cashless society and the impact of new payment forms. The paper analyzes the main trends in the field of contactless payments, the benefits of organizing monetary settlements using advanced technologies, and considers the advantages and disadvantages of modified payment system, which implies a study of the interest of banks and financial institutions in new forms of banking operations. Currently, the most important thing is the interest of consumers in the frequent use of non-cash payments due to the convenience of credit and bank cards.
Ключевые слова: Безналичное общество, безналичная система расчетов, бесконтактные платежи, последствия перехода на безналичные расчеты, COVID-19, последствия пандемии, цифровизация.
Key words: Cashless society, non-cash payment system, contactless payments, consequences of switching to non-cash payments, COVID-19, consequences of the pandemic, digitalization.
Nowadays the tendency of moving to cashless society is heatedly-discussed in various groups of people. The evolution of payments has affected people all over the world. All developed and developing countries are really concerned with the elimination of cash operations and turning to the cashless power subjects. New digital technologies are forming our new future inevitably. This work is an attempt to analyze the current situation and to anticipate the future tendencies. The relevance of this topic is defined by the importance of money in the lives of people of various nationalities, statuses and ages. Money flows form the being of people but new ways of operating impact different aspects of life from social to political ones.
People are increasingly giving up cash because of the development of electronic payment methods based on the proliferation of bank payment cards and electronic money. This is due to the introduction of contactless NFC technology
and QR coding technologies. As for the means of contactless payment, near field communication is enough to transmit a small amount of data and offers a fast easy and secure way to transfer data to a mobile phone without major security risks. Turning to cashless technologies means rejecting usual cash payments that will touch the potential growth of the economy. The non-cash cycle acts as an intermediary in the change from commodity to monetary value and from monetary value to commodity value. Non-cash payments represent more than half of all payments in the economy including movements products, distribution and redistribution of national income, payments for goods, services and work performed.
Some countries around the world are actively trying to replace paper money by 'non-cash' operations completely. Canada, for example, the country with the highest penetration of electronic payments. According to recent studies 63% of the Canadians almost never carry cash. Sweden is the most 'non-cash' country in Europe, as only 13% of payments in that country are now made in cash, even though 4 years ago the share of non-cash payments in Sweden was 59%. Two thirds of British people also use contactless payments. Germany, France, Norway and Denmark are among the top ten 'ecommerce' countries as well. [5]
The coronavirus served as the impetus for the development of online sales with contactless delivery as well. Due to a special infrastructure, people all over the world have remote access to important products and services. Decentralized banking activity has already enabled faster and cheaper international transactions. The pandemic accelerated the transition to cashless payments. It altered the interaction of consumers and businesses. Current movement towards total abundance of cash in material form can boost the economy by greater B2B synergy. The coronavirus pandemic and its consequences have accelerated changes in the payments industry for a decade of standard development. It is an outstanding jump to the cashless transformation which may affect daily routine of people.
"It has created an opportunity for the most talented companies to stay ahead of their competitors, increase i n scale and influence the daily lives of their customers". - said Jan Senan, Managing Director and Partner at BCG Paris, coauthor of the report and Global Director of Payments and Transaction Banking. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased rivalry in the industry of banking operations. Large companies will expand their customer base by consolidating and adopt new technologies rapidly to correspond with the current trend. Despite the fact that it can slow down the growth of certain economic indicators, this transition has made retail customers who were previously uninterested in digital technologies to embrace new payment methods. The new criteria of business has been introduced since the company considers a business to be cashless if 95% or more of its transactions come from debit and credit cards. According to payment processor Square, the proportion of "cashless businesses" almost quadrupled during the period of two months after the pandemic began going from 8% on March 1 to 31% on April 23. [6]
In recent past coronavirus has shown people the advantageous position of cashless operations upon cash payments. The prospect of further development of non-cash payments in the world and especially in Russia depends on several factors. Affordability of services for even small businesses makes it simple to organize large-scale distribution of cashless technologies. One more factor to mention is improved legislation to promote non-cash payments among small and micro enterprises, for example, by reducing handling charges. A lot of people are involved in provision of safe background for electronic storage and payment systems against unauthorized interference. In addition, the peak of cashless popularity connected with the spread of the virus is always linked to the safety measures. Banknotes were considered to be the means of dissemination of the infection. That is why in many places of selling various goods the use of non-cash payments was encouraged. The main point of adjusting to a new kind of society is the provision of stable system with inevitable requirements of non-cash payments establishing the basis for reduced share of cash.
Over the last decade, literally every country that is considered to be developed has been actively promoting the transition to a non-cash payment system. The real interest of the state authorities and credit and financial institutions may be not to achieve the common good but to use such a transition for own purposes. The involvement of the banks in this
case is obvious, cashless operations give them control over their customers' finances and greater opportunities for profit. The authorities' interest in a non-cash society is, above all, an opportunity to have deeper control over everyone's life. The governments are eager to diminish the activity in black market and reach transparency in volatile shadow economy. Banking secrecy has ceased to exist because modern legislation requires financial institutions to provide government with full information about banks' clients.
Being Russian citizens makes us deeply interested in the current situation in Russia. An analysis of data from the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation shows that in Russia the share of non-cash funds in the money supply is increasing from year to year while the share of cash is decreasing. The largest part of card users in Russia prefers reliable cashless payment systems such as VISA or MasterCard. Turning back to 2014 it can be mentioned that annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation caused several problems of availability of cashless interactions. Introduction of economic sanctions from the USA provoked the establishment of the National Payment System of the Russian Federation, the main objective of which was to ensure the sovereignty and security of the payment area of Russia. Now it gives an opportunity to continue transactions carried out in Crimea. Some of technologies related to contactless payment by smartphone are still provided. Russia surpassed Europe by 30-fold increase in non-cash card transactions during the last year. So, it can be connected with the appearance of the country's own payment system "Mir". Today, the Russian banking system uses modern banking technologies and products including credit products, internet banking, internet commerce, fast money transfer systems and etc.
One of the latest trends is the use of QR-codes as a means of contactless payment. It has been recently adopted in Russia and has gained popularity among citizens due to the simplicity of applying. This alternative as well as the other cashless payments is promoted as a way of beating COVID-19. It contains information of both bank data and details about specific purchases. The suppliers and service providers display the QR-code in electronic or printed form to the buyer, who is able to scan the QR code with the installed bank's mobile app. The buyer's account is then debited with the purchase amount, which is credited to the seller's account a few seconds later. This operation does not require a bank card because money goes from one account to another. In addition, the information is immediately displayed in your online and mobile banking. Bank card payments come much later, usually within a few days. Popular retail chains and online shops have already introduced Fact Payment System, so all major Russian banks are connected to it. There are various fields for application of this procedure in medical, education, transport, housing and communal services. QR-code technology has several advantages over card payments. It reduces costs even more significantly than payment via bank cards and electronic money because there is no need in the use of terminals This technology may not to become the prevailing payment method, since it is primarily intended for offline purchases but is a step towards development of cashless forms of payment. It is the technology to explore and observe but the convenience of this operation starts to attract more and more people.
The benefits of cash elimination are of utmost concern. First of all, increased safety is one of them. People with paper money are easy targets for criminals because it is extremely easy to steal it. Secondly, cashless operations reduce financial crimes. Corrupt officials and criminals with illegal income prefer to use cash and, if it is banned, it will be much more difficult for them to carry out swindling cheating because every transaction will be visible and under the control of authorities. Moreover, there are no cash management costs. The issue of banknotes and coins, putting them into circulation, storage, transport, security - all this results in huge costs that ultimately fall on taxpayers, bank customers and businesses by one way or another. Switching to non-cash payments is a mean of avoidance of unnecessary costs. Last but not least is that with the abolition of cash transparency of the economy increases. The shadow economy operations will decrease and tax burden will increase.
However, with all fixed details of financial cashless operations privacy will be lost. Software failures, equipment failures and even trivial power outages can prevent the payment of bills or the purchase of essential items in time. There is the risk of increased commissions when banking institutions will charge for the transactions more in order to increase their own profits. One of the key downsides is introduction of negative interest rates. Once all the money is in the banking system, the authorities will be able to introduce negative interest rates. These may be used to stimulate the national economy but at the same time negative rating leads to a decrease in the purchasing power of the population. It will be more difficult to make large official cash payments, as governments will monitor tax evasion more closely and track the source of citizens' income. Turning to cashless society is doubtful, nevertheless, people all over the world authorize a transfer of funds from a bank account to another person or business by means of NFC.
It might seem only obvious to conclude that cashless society is not a myth. Cash will not become completely obsolete as far as the risk of a collapse of a fully digital financial system still causes some people to store cash in case of a crisis. The pandemic promoted cashless system as a secure field of operations. The consequences of lockdown and COVID-19 will still be relevant in near future. The distress caused by the infection changed patterns of people behaviour that influenced financial and market relations. An acquired wider spread of banking services accelerated the digital transformation from which everyone can be better off. Main factors of the rapid decline of cash transactions are closely connected with coronavirus. The shift from cash to digital payment is the matter of growing demand for customers' convenience. Their preference in virtual and contactless payments is easily explained by simplicity of the procedure. The increasing penetration of internet connections and smartphones in developing countries will also have a positive impact on non-cash payments and banking. It is up for consumers to decide whether to use cash or not, though, our personal intentions and interests should not stop us from adjusting to a new kind of reality to be up to date. Modern world tendencies alter the validity of financial operations. It might not be precisely foreseeable future, but for sure economic subjects will face structural changes in financial and business performance in the process of transformation phenomena. Despite the downsides of the transition process, it can be the feature of the new era.
Список используемой литературы:
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6. Square. "Making Change." Accessed Dec. 3, 2020. [Electronic resource]. https://squareup.com/us/en/making-change/covid
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