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Cash remains an integral part of the UK payment methodology. It also remains an integral part of society in the US and Germany, two of the world's major economies. The writer of the article is indicates that a cashless utopia is a lot further away than people think. I agree.

I note that the three comments to date are all anti-cash and doomsayers for the future of cash. However, the whole point of the article is that cash is here to stay for the long haul, no matter what these doomsayers would like to happen. Life on the streets is not heading towards the utopian cashless society at any time in the foreseeable future. In fact, the article points out that very little headway is being made to replace that grubby, anonymous and unaccountable payment method.

You left off the second half of the sentence from the 5th January article - 'but all regions, except North America, saw growth in the total volume of withdrawals.'

On 5th January 2016 Finextra published an article - "Appetite for cash remains strong as ATM usage soars". Within the article it also said that with the exception of North America, the number of withdrawals increased throughout the world. So who is right? I suspect that each party is selecting the statistics that suit their needs. Anyone read Daryl Huff - How to lie with statistics?

Looks totally North American to me. The rest of the world is so far ahead in fintech that it probably does not matter.

Whilst I am sure that Mr. Garner is very well qualified I am sad that it was neccessary to seek an outside appointment and that Nationwide had not trained a successor in the 10 years that Mr. Beale has been CEO.

The rest of the world has had EMV on debit and credit cards for more than 10 years. Only the US has used mag stripes during that time and accounts for half of the world's credit card fraud. Here in the UK we have had standing orders for 50 years and variable amount direct debits for 40 years. We have instant internet transfers between banks and cheques are hardly ever used. As a result, the majority of bank users are satisfied with their lot and don't need an insecure payment method such as a mobile telephone.

Who cares who appears on banknotes? Why do we even need pictures of people on banknotes?

I'm sorry, but a survey of 1,000 people in the U.S. is never going to give any decent information and basing detailed analysis on such an incredibly minute sample is foolish. The population of the U.S. exceeds 320,000,000.

I must have missed something in this press release. Where is the MEA office?