Managers target digital payment stocks as move to cashless society accelerates

Preparing for growth of mobile and contactless payments

The move towards a cashless society has driven portfolio managers into electronic payment infrastructure and emerging fintech names, while some are predicting the trend will lead to the terminal decline of poorly-prepared traditional developed market banks.

The annual Access to Cash Review, published last week, revealed cash is now only used for a third of transactions in the UK, down from almost two-thirds a decade ago, and forecast to fall as low as one tenth of transactions within the next 15 years.  What does a declining population mean for Japan? Similarly, a recent GlobalData survey showed a reduction of 37% in the total amount of cash spent in the UK from 2012 to 2017, with the firm predicting a further 35% decline by 2022. While the UK is by far the largest user of digital payments in Europe, according to comparison website Me...