Research Discussion Papers, Bank of Finland
No 10/2002:
Cash usage in Finland – How much can be explained?
Heli Paunonen ()
and Hanna Jyrkönen
Abstract: The electronification of retail payments has been rapid in
Finland. The use of payment cards and credit transfers is very common.
However, cash is still used quite widely, especially for small value
purchases. There are no statistics available on values or numbers of cash
payments, because cash is in open circulation and so it is impossile to
trace all cash transactions. In this study we investigate cash usage during
the period 1995—2000 and assess the share of cash usage that cannot be
explained. According to our findings, the share of unexplained cash usage
amounted to about one-half of currency in circulation in 2000. However,
with the recent conversion to euro cash, we have additional information on
cash usage. Using this new information, we find that the unexplained share
of cash usage was less than one-third in 2000. Cash usage has recently been
examined by the central banks of Norway and Sweden. We thus compare the
results of three central bank studies. In addition, we discuss the euro
cash changeover and the extra information now available on cash usage.
Keywords: cash usage; euro cash changeover; (follow links to similar papers)
36 pages, June 5, 2002
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