About 85% of Retail Payments in the world are made in Cash. The percentage for India is also in the same ballpark of 85–90%. When I last checked, the percentage for USA is around 45%. The other common methods of retail payments are Credit Card, Debit Card, Account-to-Account Payments (e.g. Zelle and Venmo in USA, FPS in UK, UPI, NEFT & IMPS in India).
I don’t have the exact percentage of Cash in Corporate Payments but I’d be surprised if it exceeds 25% in any trillion-dollar economy of the world. The popular methods of payment in corporate payments are Cheque / Check, pCard or Procurement Card, Corporate Credit or Debit Card, Account-to-Account Payments (e.g. Wire Transfer in USA; FPS, BACS & CHAPS in UK; NEFT, IMPS & RTGS in India).
For the uninitiated, here’s a quick description of the two types of payments referenced above:
- Retail Payments are payments made by an individual to a company (Person-to-Business) or to another individual (Person-to-Person). Historically P2B volumes are two orders of magnitude greater than P2P volumes.
- Corporate Payments are payments by one company to another (B2B). The term “company” includes corporates and banks.
I don’t have the exact or latest figures but Retail Payments are historically 1/3rd of all payments and Corporate Payments are 2/3rd of all payments.