“We’re declaring war on cash,” said Visa spokesman Andy Gerit.
After assessing the results of the first year of the program, Visa representatives said the company expects to expand the program into other industries and countries.
Cash is still king in many industries around the world, despite the proliferation of credit and debit cards. To make the transition to cashless, it is necessary to upgrade their current point-of-sale systems, which hampers some small businesses that want to make the change.
That’s where Visa’s offer of assistance steps in. The businesses that are considering the shift to a cashless environment have to assess how they currently use cash, what effect a change would have on customers and how workers would be trained to make the transition.
Visa’ contribution could be used to upgrade point-of-sale equipment or toward marketing and other efforts to promote their small businesses.
Obviously, Visa stands to benefit over the long haul. The company already is the world’s largest processor of credit and debit cards. It charges a small fee from every payment it processes. The more companies that convert to cashless business practices, the more Visa stands to profit.
Visa’s promotion is based on information from a study conducted recently that calculated the effects if the businesses in100 American cities converted to cashless. The prediction was that the net benefit to those cities would total some $312 billion per year. The benefits would come through savings in labor costs. New York City alone could save more than 186 million hours in labor, the study suggested.
Later this year Visa says it will release a report titled “Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments” to summarize the effects of the project.