Cashless is king, but will Singapore bow to it?

CATALYSED by advances in fintech, the oft-repeated adage 'cash is king' may no longer hold true in a couple of years. With a cashless movement taking root in many economies around the world, cash is rapidly being displaced in many of the world's largest economies.

There have always been significant costs associated with the handling of cash, not least the painstaking effort and time taken to count and store cash, and the transaction costs levied by financial institutions. In today's highly globalised world, money can change hands numerous times during a single transaction, resulting in lengthy processing times for consumers. Consumers are also constrained by a bank's opening hours, with conventional banking requiring users to be physically present to initiate any transaction.

The cashless revolution will change all of this, dismantling the monopoly of the banks by offering enhanced speed, convenience, efficiency and lower costs.