Global Payment Survey Project

Eugenie Foster

The International Association of Currency Affairs (IACA) announced in 2008 that it had engaged Eugenie Foster LLC to undertake Phase 1 of a Global Payment Survey Project (GPSP.) Read Eugenie E. Foster's bio

The initial task was to survey trends, developments, and important drivers in the use of cash in various areas of the world. IACA expected the survey to provide robust and useful data for all of the stakeholders in the cash distribution infrastructure, ranging from central banks, to suppliers, to financial institutions, to the cash-in-transit industry. "We believe that stakeholders in one area of the world can learn from the trends in cash payments in other countries," said Rick Haycock, Chairman of the Board of the International Association of Currency Affairs.

The literature review showed that at least eight central banks published the results of payment surveys of various types in the previous five years. These studies used a variety of methodologies and assumptions. While all have provided useful data, there is no common standard for the collection and reporting of payment data. Read Genie's presentation on the review.

IACA concluded that retail payment surveys were underway in a number of countries, but there were no agreed-upon standards for such efforts, making it difficult to analyze and compare data from country to country. To improve its understanding of the existing research and data, in 2009, IACA initiated its Central Bank Forums on Payment Surveys. Thirteen central bank economists and cash experts attended the first one held at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on the 3rd of March 2009. The participants represented the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FRB San Francisco, Bank of Canada, FRB Boston, Netherlands Bank, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank of Mexico, FRB Chicago, and Central Bank of the Philippines and the Reserve Bank of Australia. The central bank participants told IACA that they found the forum discussions valuable and they supported additional work with IACA and each other to promote the development of international statistics about retail payments. Learn more about who attended and what was presented at this first meeting.

To be as inclusive as possible, the Central Bank forums have been held in locations often tied to the Currency Conferences or the ICCOS seminars where several of the participants attend as delegates. Moving around the Globe allows us to reach researchers in as many central banks as possible. To view video excerpts from Eugenie Foster's presentation on the Global Payment Survey Project at the 2008 Currency Conference in Prague, please click on the arrow to your right.

The second Central Bank Forum on Payment Surveys was held in Buenos Aires to tie in with the May 2010 Currency Conference. After two years of groundwork by IACA on the GPSP, the organization is developing an identity as a catalyst for high quality, reliable data about retail payments. Several options for IACA action emerged from the Second Central Bank Forum on Payment Surveys in Buenos Aires. First, the participants strongly supported additional IACA sponsored discussions, and agreed to meet again in Barcelona in March 2011.

Second, they proposed that IACA publish the International Collection of Payment Survey Terms on the Internet as a tool for researchers. Thirdly, those who had prepared and delivered presentations at the Second Forum agreed that IACA should publish their work on the Internet. Learn more about who attended and access these presentations.

For the longer term, IACA is looking to develop Guidelines for Central Bank Surveys on Retail Payment Instrument Use. Several of the central banks that have participated in the GPSP forums are committed to ongoing retail payments surveys in their home countries, and further, are interested in promoting the comparability of the survey results from country to country, while keeping in mind that payment surveys are expensive and resource-intensive undertakings. IACA's goal of developing guidelines has led it to initiate a pilot project in which three central banks that have carried out their own national surveys would collaborate to offer technical assistance to a fourth central bank that would implement a GPSP Pilot household survey on retail payment instrument use. The Pilot is intended to test the elements of payment surveys that could be adopted across countries to develop comparable statistics.

IACA's coordination of the GPSP Pilot is expected to provide the foundation for guidelines on national payment surveys, together with statistics on payments for an additional country. It also may be the catalyst for as many as four central banks to collect comparable payment statistics, laying the groundwork for global data on payment instrument use. The availability of that data may well encourage economists to carry out additional research on payment trends around the world.