Canada is one of the top three nations in the world when it comes to cashless payments, according to a MasterCard Advisors report released September 23.
The study found that 90% of financial transactions in Canada were cashless, putting the country in third place behind Belgium (93%) and France (92%).
Globally, cashless payments account for 66% of total financial transactions.
“The increased adoption of electronic payments has propelled Canada to leapfrog other countries and secure a top spot as nearly cashless,” said MasterCard Canada president Betty K. DeVita.
“In other words, Canadians are comfortable with and prefer using other forms of payment and have been at it for years.”
The study also found countries that are heavily cash-based are more likely to have higher rates of corruption than countries with more cashless transactions, due to the anonymity of the transactions. This, the study said, leads to less productivity per capita as corruption and bribery increase.
The top 10 cashless countries across the world, according to the study, are:
- Belgium (93%);
- France (92%);
- Canada (90%);
- the United Kingdom (89%);
- Sweden (89%);
- Australia (86%);
- Netherlands (85%);
- the United States (80%);
- Germany (76%); and
- Korea (70%).
