A world without cash - hard to imagine for many. To prevent cash from disappearing, a popular initiative has been launched in Switzerland to preserve coins and banknotes. The concern seems too great that cash will be abolished, and thus a part of personal freedom will be lost. At the ESTA conference, speakers and participants did not share this concern. The motto this year was "Cash is competitive".
The Future of Cash
The last few years have been eventful in many ways. The handling of cash has also changed - and not just once. During the coronavirus pandemic, contactless payment was hyped by politics and society as the "safest payment method". As a result, cash payments unsurprisingly declined. The war in Ukraine, in turn, led to an increase in cash demand at the beginning of 2022, according to the organizers of the ESTA ahead of the Business Conference.
With its motto this year, ESTA has set a sign: Cash is competitive - through independence from payment service providers, efficient and automated processes, professional handling, and digital interfaces between cash-in-transit companies, banks, and retail. Nonetheless, a lot will change in the near future. Therefore, the ESTA program this year was characterized by changes and a view to the future.
ALVARA and the ESTA Motto
The motto of ESTA this year is nothing new for us at ALVARA. We even add an assumption: Cash is competitive and will remain so in the future. Because efficient, transparent, and secure solutions can eliminate various current challenges for cash actors and significantly simplify cash management. The question of whether cash will now disappear or not is less relevant to us.
Our focus: The development of new software solutions that optimize and digitize cash processes. We already offer a diverse portfolio for retail, banks, and cash-in-transit companies. With every single product, we tackle challenges such as increasing cost pressure, the complexity of individual cash processes, or the networking of actors. You can find some examples here:
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It goes without saying that we do not rest on our initial successes. Suggestions from the industry, like those at the ESTA Business Conference, are helpful in identifying pain points and solving them together with customers.
We Say Thank You for a Successful Event!
We sincerely thank you for interesting insights, exciting discussions, the international exhibition, and noteworthy discussion rounds. As in previous years, the ESTA again ensured an exciting program and a healthy mix of presentations, discussions, and exhibitions in 2023. We are already looking forward to the next ESTA Business Conference with high-profile speakers and numerous networking opportunities.
Is cash an important topic in your professional life?