Cash - Key points for consumers

Cash has many advantages: everyone can use it without a bank account. It guarantees consumers’ privacy as transactions are not traceable and it is tangible and hence facilitates budget management. Cash also offers resilience as it is independent from energy outages or from information technology failures. But the offer of cash is decreasing with banks closing ATMs and  branches, and many merchants accepting only cards and mobile payments. Therefore, in the interest of consumer inclusiveness in payments, access to and the acceptability of cash must be guaranteed.