Per Ericsson, is the Cash Management Project Manager for Swedbank in Uppsala, Sweden.
There are many benefits of a cashless society, including faster and easier payments. Also, using electronic commerce over cash helps to cut down on robberies and crime making it safer for residents of the city.
In Uppsala, Sweden’s fourth largest city, Swedbank is working with a number of organizations to pursue a safer Uppsala. Police authorities have initiated a new approach for robbery and burglary in shops. We work together with them as well as with insurance companies, the Swedish Trade Federation , and the Swedish Work Environment Authority, among others in the “Store Group” in support of an initiative called “A securer Uppsala County”. A key part of the program is educating local merchants about how they can actively prevent crimes, for example, by handling less cash. We at Swedbank no longer handle cash at our branch offices in Uppsala. This has been in effect since May 2012, as cash has a bad effect on our environment due to transports, and with less cash, the risk of robberies decreases as well.
There are also other actors in Uppsala offering only electronic payments, such as the restaurant Sushi of Sweden noted in the video below. Several churches in Uppsala also offer visitors the opportunity to give their donations via cards in a self-serving machine or what we in Swedish call “kollektomat”.
Right now Swedbank in Uppsala is piloting MasterCard’s mobile application KOY – an app where merchants in Uppsala can easily post great deals that users can redeem from their smartphones. In the film you will meet Fredrik Andersson from the local grocery store Folkes Livs. He is just one of the merchants who sees the benefits of a digital-discount coupon for his tech-savvy customers.
I hope this film will inspire others to work actively for a safe and secure cashless society!