Finance minister's initiative: majority for compulsory card payments

Many consumers would like to pay more often by card or smartphone. But some shops or restaurants only take cash. An initiative by the finance minister is well received by Volksbanken.

A smartphone is held up to a cash register terminal: smartphones and cards are increasingly becoming the linchpin for banking transactions. Photo: Franziska Gabbert/dpa-tmn/dpa

Neu Isenburg. More than one in two adults in Germany were unable to make cashless payments as requested at least once this year. At 56 percent, the proportion in the most recent YouGov survey for the Geno Association was even higher than in 2021 when it was 45 percent.

The majority of those who, contrary to their plans, had to pay a bill with banknotes and coins instead of with a card or smartphone reported two to five cases in the current year (28 percent). A total of 1,534 adults were surveyed in a representative manner in August.

Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) wants to oblige shops and restaurants to accept digital payments with cards or cell phones in addition to cash. The key points for such a regulation are being voted on; the aim of the Ministry of Finance is for a draft law to be approved by the cabinet this year and then implemented in 2027.

Digital payments have advantages for the state: Because such payments are always documented, tax evasion and money laundering are made more difficult.

Among the board members of the Volksbanks in the Genoverband association area, which includes all federal states except Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, there is majority support for an obligation to accept card payments and digital payments: a good three quarters (77 percent) of 196 board members surveyed are in favor of this. At the same time, almost half (49 percent) are in favor of accepting cash up to a certain limit.

Freedom of choice for consumers

“The smartphone and the card are increasingly becoming the linchpin for banking and payment transactions - but at the same time it remains important for people to have the option of paying in cash,” argues the CEO of the Genoverband, Michael Hoeck. The aim of the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken is to offer their customers freedom of choice.

Four out of ten consumers surveyed assume that their personal cash use will decrease in the coming years, significantly (20 percent) or at least somewhat (21 percent). 6 percent expect that they will pay with notes and coins more often.

In line with this, 49 percent of survey participants - an even larger proportion of younger people - say they would like to pay with a card or smartphone more often: if there were more options for doing so, if they could also withdraw cash at the store checkout or if they had a better overview of where cashless payments are possible.

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