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For many the question isn’t about whether cash will disappear from our lives, it’s about when. For younger consumers in the UK the answer is sooner rather than later, with the majority of respondents in a new survey saying they believe mobile will soon replace cash as their main payment method in the next few years. In today’s issue we look at the latest research into consumer attitudes to cash and digital payments in the industry. And while we’re on the topic, it comes as no surprise that visitors to Sweden, the cashless capital of Europe, will be able to pay with contactless wristbands if they’re attending the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm this month. Today we look at Visa Europe teaming up with security firm Gemalto on payments wearables for the contest and ahead to the Rio Olympics where contactless payments are expected to boom.

Elsewhere we include insights from Tom Hay head of Payments at Icon Solutions, who talks about clearXchange as a ‘special weapon’ for major US banks including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo to speed up and simplify instant payments services against fintech companies such as TransferWise and Venmo. We also look at UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s finally getting into contactless payments.

Here we go again. A few weeks ago, PaymentEye covered a report by The Co-op that predicted mobile payments will account for 65% of all transactions in 2025. Now another report from the Prepaid International Forum found that majority of people under the age of 44 believed mobile payments to replace cash within the next few years.

Here Mark Collins, managing director at TNS UK and Ireland, tells PaymentEye what makes his market unique, what the true value of encryption is and why we shouldn’t expect cards to disappear any time soon.

Sainsbury’s has finally given in to the contactless trend as its chief executive said in an interview that he expects the majority of its 1300 stores to accept contactless payments “by Christmas”.

Opportunities to write about the Eurovision Song Contest are far and few between in the world of payments, but that ends today with news Gemalto and Visa are teaming up to hand out contactless payment wristbands at the show this year.

In this guest comment, Tom Hay, head of Payments at Icon Solutions, explores the opportunity for banks to use the clearXchange system as the ‘special weapon’ against fintech companies such as TransferWise and PayPal’s Venmo.