Swiss citizens to vote on scrapping cash

After collecting enough signatures by Monday, Swiss citizens will get a chance to try to make sure their economy never becomes cashless, a pressure group said.

In many economies, the FBS Free Switzerland Movement believes that cash is playing a shrinking role as electronic payments become the default for transactions in increasingly digitised societies, making it easier for the state to monitor its citizens' actions.

It wants a clause added to Switzerland's currency law, which governs how the central bank and government manage money supply, to add that a sufficient amount of banknotes or coins must always remain in circulation.

There isn't any evidence of moves towards a cashless society by Swiss authorities.

FBS said it had received over 111,000 signatures in support of the measure, more than the 100,000 needed to trigger a popular vote. The proposal would become law if approved by voters, though government and parliament would decide how the law would be implemented.

FBS president Richard Koller said on the group's website that it was clear that getting rid of cash not only touches on issues of transparency, simplicity or security but also carries a huge danger of totalitarian surveillance.

He views Switzerland as a European standard-bearer for the defence of cash, as pushing through such guarantees in the European Union would result in the almost impossible process of securing approval from all 27 member states.

As a result of the COVID 19 lock downs the trend towards increased cashless payments was evident as far back as 2017 when an Ipsos study found that more than a third of Europeans and Americans would happily go without cash and 20% already did so.