现金支付即将过时？

上周三公布的一项研究报告发现，超过三分之一的欧洲人和美国人乐意弃用现金，采用电子支付方式，并且至少有20%的人早已这样做。

研究者在13个欧洲国家、美国和澳大利亚进行了调查。研究还发现，在许多最常使用现金的地区，人们抛弃现金的意愿反而最高。

益普索（Ipsos）受荷兰国际集团（ING）银行网站eZonomics的委托进行了该项研究。研究报告称，欧洲34%的受访者、美国38%的受访者表示愿意弃用现金。

欧洲和美国分别有21%和34%的受访者表示，他们已经很少使用现金。

无现金支付的趋势已经非常明显。欧洲半数以上的受访者称，他们在过去12个月对现金的使用少于以往，有78%的受访者预计未来12个月将更少使用现金。

非接触式智能卡和手机钱包等支付系统，已经非常普及，这在许多国家甚至变成了政治问题。

例如，喜欢用现金的德国人担心，欧洲央行到明年年底之前，逐步停止流通500欧元货币，意味着现金支付将开始走上下坡路。

德国是现金使用频率最高的国家之一。荷兰国际集团的调查显示，只有10%的德国人称他们很少使用现金，相比之下，在其邻国波兰和法国，这一比例分别达到33%和35%。

调查还发现，使用现金较多的国家，往往是最想实现无现金化的国家。

仅19%的意大利人表示，他们很少使用现金，但有41%的受访者称他们愿意弃用现金。土耳其、罗马尼亚、捷克共和国、西班牙甚至德国都表现出类似的趋势。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

More than a third of Europeans and Americans would be happy to go without cash and rely on electronic forms of payment if they could, and at least 20% already pretty much do so, a study showed on Wednesday.

The study, which was conducted in 13 European countries, the United States and Australia, also found that in many places where cash is most used, people are among the keenest to ditch it.

Overall, 34% of respondents in Europe and 38% in the United States said they would be willing to go cash-free, according to the survey conducted by Ipsos for the ING bank website eZonomics.

Twenty-one percent and 34% in Europe and the United States, respectively, said they already rarely use cash.

The trend was also clear. More than half of the European respondents said they had used less cash in the past 12 months than previously and 78% said they expected to use it even less over the coming 12 months.

Payment systems such as contactless cards and mobile-phone digital wallets have become so prevalent the issue has become political in some countries.

Cash-loving Germans, for example, have been concerned that a move by the European Central Bank to phase out the 500 euro note by the end of next year is the start of a slippery slope.

Germany is one of the countries that uses cash the most. The ING survey showed only 10% of Germans saying they rarely use cash, compared, for example, with 33% and 35%, respectively, in neighbors Poland and France.

The survey also showed that, in general, countries where cash is much in use were most likely to want to go cashless.

Only 19% of Italians said they rarely used cash but 41% said they would be willing to go cash. There was a similar trend in Turkey, Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain and even Germany.