Summary of responses
In December 2019, we published a summary of responses, which included the issues paper and the questionnaire. We received 2,284 submissions, mostly from individuals and family/whānau.
Download Summary of Responses: The future of cash use - Te whakamahinga moni anamata (PDF 3.24MB)
Issues paper
The issues paper outlines our preliminary analysis of the role of cash in society and the trends in cash use and supply. It sets out five issues for the public to consider—both positive and negative—if less cash were being used in New Zealand accepted that:
- People who are financially or digitally excluded could be severely negatively affected. These include:
- People who are not banked or have limitations to accessing the banking system, such as people without identification and proof of address, people with convictions, people with disabilities, illegal immigrants and children.
- People who face barriers to digital inclusion, such as people with disabilities, senior citizens, people with low socio-economic status, people that live in rural communities with low internet service, migrants and refugees with English as a second language, Pasifika and Māori.
- Tourists, people in some Pacific islands and people who use cash for cultural customs might be negatively affected if they cannot use cash substitutes.
- All members of society would lose the freedom and autonomy that cash provides and the ability to use cash as a back-up form of payment, and might be more exposed to national and personal cyber threats.
- There would be limited or balanced effects for people’s ability to budget, New Zealand’s financial stability and government revenue.
- Cash infrastructure is costly. Moving to a society with less cash could increase efficiency and reduce the overall transaction costs of payments.
Download Issues Paper: The future of cash use - Te whakamahinga moni anamata (PDF 925KB)
Download Questionnaire: The future of cash use - Te whakamahinga moni anamata (PDF 481KB)