Michael McLaren is joined by Shane Wright, Senior Economics correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, to discuss Australia’s possible move towards a cashless society.

For many Australians using cash or even swiping a card has become a rare event. The move towards a cashless society started 50 years ago with the introduction of the Bankcard and was driven by technological advancements.

But it really took off with the COVID pandemic when consumers and retailers were reluctant to handle potentially infected notes and coins.

Some banking experts are predicting that Sweden will eliminate cash as a payment method by the end of this year and that all of their transactions will use a digital payment method, such as credit and debit cards, RFID signals, digital wallets, and so on.

Should this happen, this would make Sweden the first cashless country in the world.

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