Search Results (11)

This study investigates the factors that affect the adoption of mobile payment systems in Oman, focusing specifically on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the expanding FinTech landscape. By utilizing secondary sources of data from the Central Bank of Oman and global FinTech reports, this research identifies essential enablers, such as security features and ease of use, which are propelled by developments in FinTech solutions. It also addresses the obstacles, such as high transaction fees and issues with authentication, that impede SMEs from embracing these technologies. Through an examination of worldwide FinTech adoption patterns, this research offers perspectives on Oman’s progress toward becoming a cashless society. This study employs sophisticated statistical techniques, including histograms and correlation analysis, to reveal significant trends in the rates of mobile payment adoption. The results emphasize the necessity for cooperative efforts among regulators, financial entities, and FinTech developers to minimize costs, strengthen digital infrastructure, and enhance user experiences. These findings are consistent with Oman’s Vision 2040, which aims to foster financial inclusion and propel the country’s shift toward a robust, digitally oriented economy powered by FinTech innovation. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated several challenges, prompting the Indonesian government to enact rules aimed at minimizing direct contact to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which has also affected transactional activities. Transactions conducted using a digital wallet represent a technological advancement that facilitates a cashless society lifestyle. Bank Indonesia established the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) as a QR Code standard for digital payments using Electronic Money-Based (EU) servers, electronic wallets, or Mobile Banking. This study aims to identify the elements that affect consumer willingness to convert from cash payments to the QRIS during the COVID-19 epidemic. This study collected data through an online survey, distributing a 17-item questionnaire to QRIS users, yielding 568 valid responses. This research used a modified version of the Push-Pull-Mooring theory and an adaptation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, concentrating on consumers’ intentions to transition from cash payments to QRIS utilization. This study employed the Hybrid SEM-ANN methodology with the SmartPLS and IBM SPSS Statistics 27 applications for data analysis. This investigation had 11 hypotheses, of which 4 were accepted. The findings indicated that alternative attractiveness, trust, critical mass, and traditional payment habits significantly influenced the intention to transition from cash payments to QRIS payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

The adoption of a cashless economy was accelerated globally by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brunei Darussalam was not excluded from this trend, as pandemic-related restrictions were implemented to ensure the safety of its population. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, this research paper examines the factors influencing the readiness and acceptance of a cashless economy among working society in Brunei Darussalam. The integrated concepts of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Technology Readiness Index (TRI) are applied to examine perceptions impacting their acceptance and readiness to continue adopting a cashless economy. The methodology includes a literature review and the use of secondary data from government reports and industry publications. A quantitative approach is employed, utilizing an online survey to collect non-probability samples from 212respondents. The main instruments used in the survey are structured questionnaires. The study’s findings show that factors such as the assessment of payment modes, technological development, digital literacy, knowledge, regulatory policies, and security concerns significantly affect working society’s perceptions, readiness, and acceptance of a cashless economy. These results provide insights for policymakers and stakeholders on the key factors influencing continued cashlessness adoption and shaping societal behavior towards cashless payments. Full article

The proliferation of digital payments has paved the way for the greater use of E-wallets or mobile payments in over-the-counter (OTC) retail transactions. Nevertheless, given its economic and accessibility benefits over NFC forms of mobile payment, relatively little is known about QR-code E-wallet (QREW) adoption from the consumer–brand relationship perspective. The study aims to address this knowledge void by augmenting brand equity elements (perceived value, brand image, and brand awareness) to comprehensively analyze consumers’ QREW usage intention in the OTC retail environment. A structural equation modeling analysis was performed on 305 consumers in the greater Klang Valley, Malaysia. The empirical findings suggest that brand awareness positively affects QREW usage intention and mediates the effects of both perceived quality and brand image on the outcome. Moreover, the results reveal a serial mediation effect involving all of the examined factors. Theoretically, this study supplements the literature on mobile payments from the consumer–brand relationship view, in which the predictive nature of brand equity factors is examined separately. In practical terms, considering that the Malaysian market QREW is in a relatively early growth stage, the findings should offer QREW providers insights into how to capitalize on brand equity mechanisms for attracting consumers to utilize their offerings. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted many if not all aspects of our lives, including the way we handle money. This paper takes mobile payments as an example to show how COVID-19 affected the United Arab Emirates. Many researchers rushed into writing their first impressions in response to the pandemic to produce early study results. This paper uses these early electronic articles and blogs as valuable data sources for a first-level analysis. It attempts to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mobile payment services in the post-pandemic world from the demand and supply perspective in the UAE. The previous literature has been reviewed to understand the scope of the services present in the UAE before the onset of the pandemic. Further, an online questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions was used to gather data from 125 vendors capable of receiving mobile payments. Regression analysis with two time periods has been included to develop a better perception of mobile payment services before and after the spread of the coronavirus. It was found that COVID-19 has created a suitable environment for mobile payments, with significant positive relationship in both periods. The reasons for using mobile payments during the pandemic were to apply social distancing and to avoid physical touch, a requirement in the COVID-19 period, resulting in a move towards creating a positive attitude towards a cashless society. Full article

The interplay between finance and technology with the use of the internet triggered the emergence of digital payment technologies. Such technological innovation in the payment industry is the foundation for financial inclusion. However, despite the continuous progress and potential of moving the payment landscape towards digital payments and connecting the population to the ubiquitous digital environment, some critical issues need to be addressed to achieve a more harmonious inclusive and sustainable cashless society. The study aims to provide a comprehensive literature review on the emerging digital payment technologies and associated challenges. By systematically reviewing existing empirical studies, this study puts forward the state-of-the-art classification of digital payment technologies and presents four categories of digital payment technologies: card payment, e-payment,mobile payment and cryptocurrencies. Subsequently, the paper presents the key challenges in digital payment technologies categorized into broad themes: social, economic, technical, awareness and legal. The classification and categorization of payment technologies and associated challenges can be useful to both researchers and practitioners to understand, elucidate and develop a coherent digital payment strategy. Full article

The assessment of consumer behavior regarding the choice of financial instruments may be extremely important in the near future, since the fight between cash and electronic money has reached a turning point, and electronic payments are slowly defeating cash. On one hand, in the long term, this possible separation threatens sustainable development goals, and on the other hand, financial awareness can affect the number of purchases and savings. In a survey of 499 people, we examined the reasons behind their decisions, with a particular focus on financial awareness. The result shows that the vast majority of Hungarian consumers are not yet ready to fully accept electronic payments. It can be stated that financial awareness is not present at all in one-fifth of respondents, and one-third are influenced by habituation in everyday shopping situations, which indicates a lack of financial awareness. Based on our results, we have concluded that our consumers still find it difficult to abandon cash payments. Financial awareness needs to be improved in parallel with the Hungarian government’s strategy to reduce the use of cash. Full article

Financial knowledge is the main element of financial literacy, which is important for the sustainable development of individuals and society. Sustainability is a complex concept that spans many fields, including financial knowledge for all ages. Financial knowledge requires significant scientific research showing its impact on individuals and the economy, including non-cash payments. Consumer payment knowledge and its association with consumer financial behavior have long been a matter of widespread interest by researchers, but no in-depth, empirically based scientific research has been completed for Poland. The objective of this study was to examine factors associated with cashless payment behavior with an emphasis on the role of consumer financial knowledge. A total of 1100 interviews were carried out with Polish nationals aged 15 and above. The collected data were analyzed with the use of statistical methods, including analysis of variances (ANOVA), in order to examine consumers’ financial knowledge by basic economic and non-economic factors. Additionally, a data-mining method known as Random Forests was implemented for finding the variable importance in correlations between consumer financial knowledge and preferred methods of payment. The results revealed the diversity of factors influencing consumer behavior. Among the consumers’ personal traits, financial knowledge was one of the most important determinants of their payment choices. The results have implications for the design of payment processes. The results can be used by central banks to determine the directions of financial inclusion, as well as for stakeholders in the payments market. Full article

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a digital currency issued by a central bank. Motivated by the financial crisis and prospect of a cashless society, countries are researching CBDC. Recently, global consideration has been given to paying basic income to avoid consumer sentiment shrinkage and recession due to epidemics. CBDC is coming into the spotlight as the way to manage the public finance policy of nations comprehensively. CBDC is studied by many countries. The bank of the Bahamas released Sand Dollar. Each country’s central bank should consider the situation in which CBDCs are exchanged. The transaction of the CDDB is open data. Transaction registers CBDC exchange information of the central bank in the blockchain. Open data on currency exchange between countries will provide information on the flow of money between countries. This paper proposes a blockchain system and management method based on the ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry for exchange between CBDCs that records transactions between registered CBDCs. Each country’s CBDC will have a different implementation and time of publication. We implement the blockchain system and experiment with the operation method, measuring the block generation time of blockchains using the proposed method. Full article

In recent years, electronic retail payment mechanisms, especially e-commerce and card payments at the point of sale, have increasingly replaced cash in many developed countries. As a result, societies are losing a critical public retail payment option, and retail consumers are losing important rights associated with using cash. To address this concern, we propose an approach to digital currency that would allow people without banking relationships to transact electronically and privately, including both e-commerce purchases and point-of-sale purchases that are required to be cashless. Our proposal introduces a government-backed, privately-operated digital currency infrastructure to ensure that every transaction is registered by a bank or money services business, and it relies upon non-custodial wallets backed by privacy-enhancing technology, such as blind signatures or zero-knowledge proofs, to ensure that transaction counterparties are not revealed. Our approach to digital currency can also facilitate more efficient and transparent clearing, settlement, and management of systemic risk. We argue that our system can restore and preserve the salient features of cash, including privacy, owner-custodianship, fungibility, and accessibility, while also preserving fractional reserve banking and the existing two-tiered banking system. We also show that it is possible to introduce regulation of digital currency transactions involving non-custodial wallets that unconditionally protect the privacy of end-users. Full article

In this paper we set out a three-pillar monetary-financial framework to (i) analyze, categorize and compare past, current and emerging means of payment; to (ii) capture their creation and destruction processes through sectoral balance sheet dynamics; and to (iii) identify the inherent risks to the current monetary-financial system, also known as the fractional reserve banking system. These risks, which stem from sudden shifts in money demand and supply, are as follows: (I) risk of a cashless society; (II) risk of structural bank disintermediation; (III) risk of systemic bank runs; (IV) risk of currency substitution; and (V) risk of economic and financial bubbles. This framework will guide the assessment of the central bank digital currencies (CBDC), which are considered as the next step in monetary evolution. We will analyze two large groups of CBDC proposals: (i) proposals aimed at complementing cash and bank deposits; and (ii) proposals aimed at replacing all bank deposits with CBDCs. We find that once CBDCs are issued in both sets of proposals, there is always a trade-off between low levels of (I), (IV), (V), risks and high levels of (II) risk. This trade-off could also be defined as the CBDC dilemma, which states that in most CBDC proposals it is impossible to have both of the following at the same time: (1) low levels of (I), (IV) and (V) risks; and (2) low levels of (II) risk. Finally, we suggest that further research on CBDCs should focus on the second group of proposals on a phase-in basis in order to also mitigate the structural bank disintermediation risk and hence to overcome the CBDC dilemma. Full article