More than one third of Norwegians believes cash will no cease to be used as a way of paying for goods and services, reports EDB ErgoGroup and Synovate.

Research into payment behaviour showed that cash withdrawals from minibanks in Norway have fallen by 25 per cent over the last five years, and 11 per cent of Norwegians do not carry any cash at all.

“In just a few years’ time, mobile phones will be very much the dominant payment method,” commented John-Arne Haugerud, deputy CEO of EDB ErgoGroup and responsible for business development. “We have so far seen just the beginning of technological development in this area, and we expect explosive growth over the next few years. Thanks to the variety of wireless technology now emerging, payment by card and payment by mobile phone are beginning to merge into one payment method. The mobile phone is becoming our new wallet.”

In turn, the number of customers holding an internet banking account agreement with a Norwegian bank has increased to almost five million, a figure estimated by EDB ErgoGroup on the basis of statistics for the use of various banking channels in 2010. This is a huge increase on 2003’s record of 1.7 million customers.

Haugerud added that a strong growth has been experienced in the use of banking applications for smart phones since they launched a service a year ago.

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