The majority of Switzerland’s population consider access to cash in their everyday lives to be “fairly good” (53%) or “very good” (32%), while the remainder rate it as “somewhat poor” (13%) or “very poor” (2%). However, almost half of those surveyed believe that access to cash has deteriorated at least somewhat (36%) or even significantly (10%) in recent years. “The subjective perception of Switzerland’s population coincides with objective measures of cash access,” explains Dr.Tobias Trütsch, payment economist at the University of St. Gallen.

Attitudes toward the possible abolition of cash are constantly changing, with the proportion of those who are neither for nor against abolition falling steadily. Instead, there has been an increase to 44.3% in the proportion of the population clearly against the abolition of cash. Older respondents were more strongly opposed to the abolition of cash. In contrast, there is growing support for a cashless society among the younger age groups. “It is interesting to note that while more and more respondents are speaking out against the abolition of cash, it is actually being used less and less often to make payments,” observes Tobias Trütsch.

A majority of 61% would welcome the proposed introduction of a cash acceptance obligation in Switzerland, whereas slightly under 20% of respondents were against this. In contrast, 41% of respondents favored an obligation for vendors to accept cashless payments, while 37% disagreed. “From feedback on the reasons for their answers, it is clear that those in favor place the highest value on individual freedom of payment choices from the consumers’ perspective,” says Marcel Stadelmann.