Overview
- The ECB's survey of about 8,200 firms, with data collected between February and April 2026, found 92% of physical businesses report accepting cash.
- One quarter of surveyed firms said they had invested in systems that favour cashless payments and 13% have installed self‑checkout terminals, nearly half of which do not accept cash at those terminals.
- Reported acceptance of mobile payments jumped from 36% in 2024 to 68% in 2026, a rise that some analysts question because 2024–25 terminal data already showed roughly 92–93% contactless capability.
- Acceptance plans vary sharply by country: sizable shares of firms in Cyprus (51%), Greece (23%) and Bulgaria (18%) say they could stop taking cash within five years while under 10% of German firms say the same.
- The ECB warned that automation can make cash practically harder to use and called on national authorities to adopt proactive measures to preserve cash for vulnerable consumers and for crisis resilience.