Australian cities are among the most advanced in the world in dumping cash in favour of digital payments, helped by a surge in "tap-and-go" purchases, according to new research.
As banks also report cash withdrawals falling quickly, a report from payments giant Visa puts Sydney and Canberra among a group of nine cities leading the charge in embracing digital payments.
By the report's criteria, the Australian cities have made greater progress in moving towards electronic payments than cities including New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Berlin and Seoul.
While it did not include other domestic capital cities aside from Sydney and Canberra, Visa group country manager for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Stephen Karpin said they were just as far ahead of most cities overseas.
"We're well ahead of the majority of the world," Mr Karpin said. "There's a momentum in consumer preference, as well as among merchants. They're seeing the benefits of electronic payments."
The report argued it would boost the economy to further encourage electronic payments, a claim that has also been made by the black economy taskforce, which reported to federal government last month.
Visa's report, by Roubini Thoughtlab, put cities into different groups by looking at issues including the type of payment infrastructure, and how willing people were to pay for things electronically. Sydney and Canberra were among nine classified as "digital leaders".
It comes as banks have, in recent months, reported cash withdrawals falling at about 10 per cent a year, with consumers instead making smaller purchases on cards.
Visa said the share of its face-to-face transactions that were contactless had risen to 92 per cent from 80 per cent earlier this year.
The government's black economy taskforce has argued lower use of cash would help to bolster government tax revenue, recover illegitimate welfare payments and curb underpayment of cash-in-hand staff.
Visa's report also included modelling pointing to the economic benefits from time saved for consumers and businesses, extra tax collections for government, less cash-related crime and administrative savings within government. It said Sydney could gain total economic benefits equal to $9.4 billion, mainly due to greater efficiency among businesses and time saved for consumers.
RBA figures also show that in the past nine years the share of consumer payments by number paid for in cash has dropped from nearly 70 per cent to less than 40 per cent.
Visa's Mr Karpin said paying with a phone would take off, though this shift is happening only gradually so far.
As digital tap-and-go payments take off, the Reserve Bank is also keen to lower the cost of some contactless payments for retailers, an issue that has also been examined by the federal government's banking inquiry.
Mr Karpin said Visa would work with the industry on the issue, but argued the government should pursue policies that encouraged "investment and innovation" in how people pay for things.
