Why Ceeney’s Last Stand CAN succeed
CASH is withering on the vine at an alarmi ng rate. It i s yet another vi ct i m of economic lockdown, to go with a shopping mall full of familiar retail brands and a multitude of businesses small and big. All very depressing.
Yet, as we report above, there are some individuals in positions of power who are mounting the equivalent of Custer’s Last Stand to protect cash from the country’s fast march t owards a digital payment world – one occupied by contactless t r ansactions and mobile phone payment wallets and all part of the rapid ‘digitalisation’ of our lives.
Leading from the front, cash flag waving in the wind, is Natalie Ceeney who in recent years has done more than anyone else to highlight the importance of cash in an inclusive society.
It was Ceeney who last year published a key report into access for cash. It concluded that some eight million adults would struggle to cope in a cashless society – many of them elderly or financially challenged. She called for cash to be preserved and the Government responded by promising new legislation to protect it.
Although the legislation (understandably) has yet to materialise, Ceeney battles on. As chair of a project called the ‘ Cash pilot programme’, she has just given the green light for a s eri es of t r i al s t o t ake pl ace across the country – supported by the wider banking industry.
The idea is to test new and old ways of keeping cash on the high street – for example, through the setting up of a shared bank branch; introducing a free- to- use cash machine into a community currently without one; or a facility allowing local businesses to bank cash takings without having to travel miles.
If any of them prove transformative, they will be rolled out on a national scale, backed if necessary by supportive legislation.
While the timing of the pilots is not ideal what with social distancing remaining a concern, let’s hope that Ceeney’s Last Stand helps keep cash on the high street.
A FINAL ( positive) thought on ‘ digitalisation’. I find it quite extraordinary that the combined market value of US tech giants Amazon and Apple now exceeds that of the entire UK stock market – a fact relayed to me last week by Nick Train of investment house Lindsell Train, one of the country’s most successful fund managers.
Although some investment commentators believe that the valuations put on these two companies – and for that matter placed on many US tech companies – are unsustainable, Train doesn’t agree. He believes their continued stock
market success is a reflection of both the growing digitalisation of businesses and increased consumer demand for digital goods and services (for the record, the £7.8 billion Lindsell Train Global Equity fund that Train runs does not invest in the two stocks).
‘Thinking about the winners, as well as the obvious losers from this year’s terrible events, helps explain why stock markets have begun to recover, even when the outlook for the real economy still looks horrible,’ says Train.
‘Stock markets look into the future and it is evident that the future prospects for companies that can successfully harness the power of the internet have actually improved over the last four months.’
Train believes the continued rise of Amazon and Apple should be viewed positively by investors. ‘What the success of these US companies shows,’ he says, ‘is that today there is a possibility of creating corporate wealth more quickly and on a greater scale than ever before – provided you have a product or service that is relevant to the third decade of the 21st Century and beyond.’
His conclusion? ‘The UK has a great record of innovation and entrepreneurship and our stock market is home to some great companies. This is indeed a terrible time, but it remains likely that the 2020s will be a roaring decade for enterprise and consumers. I hope so – for the sake of our children.’
Encouraging words in a world where positivity remains in short supply.