Hello everyone. Today’s update (Tuesday, March 7th) kicks off with Neil’s thoughts on the number of ATMs declining in the U.S. The discussion goes over cash usage trends and includes some of Neil’s personal observations and behavior change regarding cash use. There are takeaways involving Apple Pay and long-term payment trends. The update concludes with a look at Roku’s 4Q22 earnings.

Number of ATMs Decline

With an article that grabbed my interest yesterday, here is the WSJ:

“The slow move toward a cashless society is helping to send the ubiquitous ATM into decline around the U.S., presenting challenges for those who still largely rely on cash.

After peaking at 470,000 ATMs in the U.S. in 2019, the number of machines has declined annually over the past few years to 451,500 at the end of 2022, according to data tracked by research firm Euromonitor International. The reason: Many people quit using cash during the pandemic and haven’t gone back, said Kendrick Sands, consumer finance research manager for the London-based firm.

‘There was that scare that the virus was transmitted by paper, plus the trend of just buying everything online,’ said Mr. Sands, who is based in Chicago. ‘That dealt almost a death blow to cash, especially for younger people.’

Cash and checks are forecast to fall to 14% of total payments this year from 42% in 2010, with the most precipitous drop coming just after the pandemic started in 2020, according to Euromonitor estimates.”

In what was news to me, the number of ATMs in use is something that firms need to estimate and project. While the Federal Reserve publishes various statistics and data points regarding currency use, there does not appear to be a central database for the number of ATMs in use.

Accordingly, it shouldn’t have been much surprise that the ATM trade association is questioning Euromonitor International’s figures showing a decline in both the number of ATMs and cash usage saying that cash “is still the payment method of choice for in-person transactions of $25 or less.” That statement doesn’t take anything away from the assertions found in the WSJ’s article.

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