Despite the rise of digital payments and a decrease in face-to-face transactions, demand for cash in Australia is surging. A recent paper from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) reports consumers are withdrawing large amounts from ATMs, driven by the reliability of physical money as a store of wealth and an emergency payment option.
According to the paper—Review of Banknotes Distribution Arrangements—$100 billion worth of banknotes changed hands this October, representing double the amount moving in the same period back in 2010. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the value of notes in circulation has risen by around 20 percent, compared with a typical annual increase of six percent in the prior decade.
