With Cashless City, Bergamo says Goodbye to old banknotes
The first national project aimed at increasing electronic payments and all the benefits deriving from it
Cashless City is a brand new initiative recently launched in Bergamo (a small city near Milan) as the first national project aimed at reducing the use of cash in a whole city. A direct consequence would be an increase in electronic payments, thought to be fundamental to create value in the economy of the country.
The initiative started in Bergamo with the support of local authorities and eminent characters, such as Giorgio Gori (mayor of the city), Laura Cioli (CartaSi managing director) and Paolo Battison (MasterCard Division President Italy and Greece). All of them declared that this activity stresses a deep commitment of banks and authorities towards a more effective economic system.
Cashless City intends to prove that an effective collaboration between public administration and banks can make electronic payments a daily habit. It means that their incidence would also increase, balancing with the percentage of the "Great Europeans" , that is Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France. Nonetheless, the "top performers" are Norway, Sweden and Finland where electronic transactions are 46,8%. The latters present several advantages for the citizens. Firstly, they simplify their life giving them a greater accessibility to services, security and to a better control of expenses. Furthermore, electronic payments foster national economy by eliminating the costs of cash-management so as by providing more transparency.
One can easily be part of in this project. All you need to do is to make a purchase with the card, take a picture of the receipt and upload it on the App devoted to the project (Cashless City). In order to promote the use of this innovative service, card's holders and shop owners can register their transaction on Cashless City website and take part to the extraction of individual prizes. All the other electronic payments by card take automatically part to another collective extraction related to the promotion of a a project that can impact on the whole city.
The website www.cashlesscity.it will give all the relevant information about the project and all security related issues related to it. Moreover, it will give voice to the citizens through interviews and reports.
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