Trend · rank 109 of 250

Digital payments & cash decline

Cash and branches are giving way to digital payments and embedded finance, lowering transaction costs but leaving households and shops dependent on power, networks and a small number of providers.

Financial StrengthMoney & debtdigital financeresilienceconnectivity

Second pass: Carried forward from the first pass, where it was Cash decline & payment dependence; takes in Digital payments & FinTech. Held by all three panel models.

Sensitivity and network position

Rank
109of 250
Sensitivity
13.3rank 61
Breadth
3of 20 scenarios High or above
PageRank
26.7rank 173
Eigenvector
3.7
Betweenness
18.6
Links
7trends at Moderate similarity or above
Composite
22.2

Attention over three years

How much this trend is read about on Wikipedia and searched for on Google, week by week, set against the typical trend in the list so that what moves every trend at once is taken out. 100 is this trend's own three-year average. The score measures public attention, which is not the same as the strength of the force: a trend can deepen unnoticed, and a news event can lift attention for a fortnight.

Now
138
Over a year
+32%Rising
Over three years
+45%
Peak
19315 Feb 2026
Sources
Bothagreement -0.30
Coverage
12languages · 60 nations

Trailing 4-week average. 100 is this trend’s three-year average.

By language

Wikipedia reading in each language edition where the trend’s pages are read enough to measure (12 of 28). Share is of all the readers counted.

LanguageShareNowOver a yearThree years
English75%94−13%
Russian6%98−1%
Indonesian6%48+2%
Spanish3%132+15%
Chinese3%129+36%
Japanese3%98−5%
French2%107+10%
German1%100−10%
Portuguese1%118+12%
Turkish1%122+17%
Polish1%96−7%
Persian0%110+9%

By country

Google search interest over the three years, as a share of each country’s searching. 100 is the nation where interest is highest. The search terms are English, which favours countries that search in English.

Singapore

United Kingdom

South Korea

Ireland

Australia

United States

United Arab Emirates

Nepal

New Zealand

Netherlands

Bangladesh

Malaysia

100

72

69

56

43

43

41

39

39

37

33

33

The 12 highest of 60 nations with a reading.

By region and G20 member

Attention to this trend inside each place, from Google searches made in its countries and Wikipedia reading in the languages mostly read there, averaged where both exist. Each line compares the trend with its own past in that place; the lines do not compare places.

Regions

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
North AmericaGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in English128+3%+13%+55%
EuropeGoogle in 7 countries + Wikipedia in German, French, Polish119+18%+23%+21%
Indo-PacificGoogle in 9 countries + Wikipedia in Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian106+39%+32%+40%
South AsiaGoogle in 2 countries404+187%+593%+622%
Gulf and Middle EastGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in Persian, Turkish105+33%−7%+7%
Latin America and CaribbeanGoogle in 4 countries + Wikipedia in Spanish, Portuguese152+45%+47%+80%
Russia and EurasiaGoogle in 1 country + Wikipedia in Russian124+34%+18%+54%

G20 members

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
AustraliaGoogle88−18%−17%−41%
BrazilGoogle + Wikipedia in Portuguese98+20%−4%−8%
CanadaGoogle167+12%+126%+200%
FranceGoogle + Wikipedia in French109+21%−1%+3%
GermanyGoogle + Wikipedia in German124−13%+35%+83%
IndiaGoogle505+209%+1194%+1041%
IndonesiaGoogle + Wikipedia in Indonesian50−27%−1%+19%
ItalyGoogle125+1%+38%+34%
JapanGoogle + Wikipedia in Japanese105+7%+1%+8%
South KoreaGoogle148+130%+5%+81%
MexicoGoogle224+47%+91%+238%
RussiaWikipedia in Russian98+4%−1%+67%
TürkiyeGoogle + Wikipedia in Turkish102+35%−7%+14%
United KingdomGoogle100+4%−2%−4%
United StatesGoogle + Wikipedia in English126+2%+5%+52%

Relation to each scenario

A trend relates to a scenario when it changes how likely the scenario is, how hard it lands, or is itself sharply changed by it. Each score is the median of three scores given separately by the members of the model panel.

RelationScenarioFamily
4 · HighHybrid coercion ends in an infrastructure blackout S04Geopolitical and security
4 · HighA cryptographic breakthrough invalidates digital trust S09Technology and infrastructure
4 · HighA public service platform reaches inclusive operation S18 ↗Technology and infrastructure
3 · ModerateA global funding seizure reaches sovereign balance sheets S02Economic and trade
1 · Very lowA novel respiratory pathogen exceeds health surge capacity S10Health
0 · Not relatedCritical trade divides into rival blocs S01Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA regional war closes a globally important sea route S03Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA disputed transfer of power breaks effective government S05Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedTwo breadbasket failures trigger a food availability crisis S06Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA major disaster disables the national economic core S07Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedAn AI deployment step causes abrupt labour displacement S08Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedA creditor agreement releases fiscal capacity S11 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA cross-regional market access compact redirects investment S12 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA great-power agreement lowers economic security barriers S13 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA verified Middle East settlement restores access S14 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedCheap firm clean power becomes available at scale S15 ↗Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA validated farming package raises water-efficient output S16 ↗Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedAI-directed research produces a reproducible discovery step S17 ↗Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedAffordable preventive treatments reduce chronic illness S19 ↗Health
0 · Not relatedA live outbreak proves rapid distributed pandemic defence S20 ↗Health

Similarity = 0.3 × shared tags (Jaccard) + 0.3 × likeness of scenario profiles (cosine) + 0.3 × likeness of names and descriptions (TF-IDF cosine) + 0.1 if in the same capability domain, cut into seven levels at 0.12, 0.22, 0.33, 0.45, 0.58, 0.72. Shown at Moderate and above.

SimilarityTrendThemeRank
4 · HighFinancial market infrastructure resilienceMoney & debt73
4 · HighStablecoins & digital currenciesMoney & debt134
3 · ModerateDigital public infrastructureState capacity & governance31
3 · ModerateTelecom network resilienceEnergy, networks & climate resilience35
3 · ModerateDollar dependence & payment fragmentationMoney & debt45
3 · ModerateBank funding & deposit mobilityMoney & debt101
3 · ModerateTokenisation of financial assetsMoney & debt175