Payment insight February 2023

Headlines

CASH PAYMENT – A political issue

• FRANCE - Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas and Société Générale unveil their new joint brand of ATMs
• SWITZERLAND – Citizen’s initiative wants to constitutionalize cash access
• ITALY - Italy: Giorgia Meloni wants to put a stop to the era of digital payments

Despite the post-Covid indicators, which point to a growth in mobile payments and a decline in the use of ATMs, the announced end of cash will not be a reality. It remains a highly political issue. The project to pool the ATMs of BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Mutuel-CIC mainly concerns urban areas where these brands coexist. There should therefore be no closed ATMs in rural and isolated areas. Although cash withdrawals are decreasing, access to cash remains a significant need in France. According to a study by the European Central Bank (ECB), cash payments will still account for 50% of in-store transactions in 2022. In view of these figures, the authorities are making sure that ATMs continue to exist throughout the country, especially in the countryside. In Switzerland, a popular initiative has been launched with the aim of guaranteeing access to cash, which can be considered a common good, and because it decisively guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms, must be protected by law. And in Italy, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni wants to raise the ceiling on cash transactions to ensure the survival of cash payments in the face of digital payments, which she sees as an "illegitimate gift to banks and a hidden tax on small businesses and households.

DIGITAL IDENTITY - Tech players on the prowl

• CHINA - Huawei tests a virtual medical insurance card with its digital wallet
• UNITED STATES - Meta adds authentication with Meta Verified
• FRANCE - Digital ID application likely to be delayed due to Apple bug

The European Digital Identity Portfolio is expected to be rolled out soon. It will allow businesses to have better control over the data they share. For the public, the European digital identity wallet will allow the storage of identity documents such as the digital identity card (e-CNI) via the France Identity application, which should see its launch delayed by a bug linked to Apple devices. For their part, tech companies are also moving forward with new use cases, such as the Chinese company Huawei, which is testing a virtual medical insurance card with its digital wallet. Or Meta, the American company that follows Twitter in its account certification process. Meta Verified promises to better protect users of the Meta group's platforms from the risk of identity theft through proactive monitoring. Meta's long-term strategy, particularly in relation to its initiatives related to immersive "metaverse" technologies, is intrinsically linked to identity management. Beyond this technological gamble, the various governmental projects to regulate online identity (in France and elsewhere) are perhaps also seen as opportunities by the company.