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Paywave. It ain’t all that. Picture: Mike Burton
DON’T put your money on Australia being a cashless society soon. We still love the folding stuff.
We love it so much, in fact, the Reserve Bank is today opening a new super vault to store its contingency reserves.
At the moment there are 1.5 billion individual banknotes on issue — or an average of 62 notes for every Australian. And the value of those notes make up the biggest chunk of the gross national product since 1967.
So much for the tap-and-go revolution.
Then there is the huge stash the RBA holds for emergencies, such as occurred in 2008 during the global financial crisis when there was a run on cash by customers who feared their banks were in trouble.
Our notes are so popular, the Reserve Bank of Australia fears the number of counterfeit notes in circulation is “creeping up”, although the total is still at a low level.
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe told a Melbourne dinner last night our banknotes are still much prized, even as we use credit and debit cards more often.
Paywave. It ain’t all that. Picture: Mike BurtonSource:News Corp Australia
“It might come as a surprise to you to learn that, despite all the talk of a cashless society and electronic payments, the value of banknotes on issue in Australia, relative to GDP, is the highest that it has been in 50 years,” he said.
“Australians have come to rely on our secure and high-quality banknotes.”
The RBA today officially opens its banknote storing and distribution facility at Craigieburn in Melbourne.
This will be the closest the public will get to its contents.
“The new facility is built around a very large vault and as you can imagine, it is highly secure,” said Mr Lowe.
“It also uses the latest technology and is our first major investment in banknote storage and distribution for decades.”
The cashless economy seemed at have arrive when in March the RBA reported a big slump in ATM withdrawals.
Withdrawals for January were 7.7 per cent lower than for the previous January, and for three years in a row the decline had been six per cent or above.
These figures were interpreted as showing electronic payment systems had taken over.