New NZ Cash Acceptance Law Shows The Time for UK “Monitoring” Is OVER!

HM Treasury says they are monitoring what is happening in other countries in relation to cash acceptance.

In reality, Payment Choice Alliance - founded in 2014, three years before UK Finance - has been gathering international precedents for years and informing HM Treasury accordingly.

New Zealand has now been added to the long list of countries where it has been recognised that the public require the legal right to have their cash accepted.

Here is a quote from New Zealand’s proposed legislation, making clear what the aim is

“ …preserve cash as an explicit privacy-preserving payment method, ensuring both freedom of choice and freedom from unwarranted surveillance in financial transactions ……maintaining sovereign control over New Zealand's monetary policy and mitigating the risks associated with digital-only financial systems, like restricted access to funds."

The question the Payment Choice Alliance continues to pose to HM Treasury and, indeed, the British Government as a whole, is why the British public deserve less rights in relation to cash than the citizens of all our European neighbours and, now, the 5 million citizens of British Commonwealth member New Zealand.

Soon, a British citizen will be able walk across from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic; take the short train journey to France; or go as far as possible from the UK, by flying to New Zealand - and find that cash is accepted BY LAW.

Meantime, HM Treasury “Monitors”.

“Monitoring” is something British Governments and Regulators are fond of doing; it sounds better that “Procrastinating”.

It has led to many disasters, including the one announced just two days ago, when it was made public that the UK water Regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency had between them “Monitored” the amount of raw sewage spilling into England's rivers and seas doubling in 2023, with 3.6 million hours of spills compared with 1.75 million hours in 2022.

1.75 million hours of sewage spills was already a disaster - but Ofwat successfully “Monitored” that disaster becoming a catastrophe in a mere 12 months.

The Payment Choice Alliance is NOT prepared stand idly by whilst HM Treasury - or the Bank of England - or Financial Conduct Authority - “Monitor” the disaster that is “cashless” doubling to become a catastrophe by 2026.

The time for “Monitoring” is OVER.

The British Government needs to act NOW -in 2025 - to guarantee by law that the British public are NOT 2nd Class Citizens when it comes to having their British £ accepted.

The Kings Speech, at the State Opening of Parliament in the Autumn of 2025, would be the perfect time to announce cash acceptance legislation.

Source: bills.parliament.nz/v/1/2bfb6b0d-ee08-4a67-9071-08ddc2593232