 David Clark is from the campaign group Positive Money and I began by asking David Clark what the support is actually uncovered. If you're someone who depends on cash or likes having the option to use it, this report is a wake-up call. The system that allows us to access and pay with cash is on the brink of collapse and unless government and regulators intervene, using cash might become impossible within just 15 years. That's an amazing thought and why is it on the brink of collapse? I mean don't all businesses still have cash registers? Right now there is actually a significant demand for cash. There's actually more cash in circulation than at any point in history and over or nearly half of people say they're moving to a cashless society would be a problem for them. But the cash system, the system that allows cash to move around the country, keep cash machines topped up and allow retailers to deposit cash in branches is under threat. That's partly because banks have a commercial incentive to see cash usage reduced. They would have to pay less in fees and charges towards keeping cash machines open and they'd make more money from card transactions. Are we going to see... I'm thinking about phone boxes. If you go back 30, 40 years, phone boxes were a fixture in every city, but now they're not. Is that the fate of the ATM as you see it? There's a risk that the number of cash machines will decline and they are declining rapidly at the moment and that's because banks successfully lobbied for a reduction in the amount that they have to pay towards maintaining the cash machine network. And there's a risk that cash will decline not because consumers don't want the option to use it, but because it's in the interests of banks and card companies to withdraw funding for the system. So as you explain now, people are finding an economic incentive to get rid of cash machines and banks are finding an economic incentive to stop handling cash really. I mean, is a day coming when you couldn't take your takings to the bank? It's going to become potentially more difficult for, or we're potentially going to see more retailers stop accepting cash because it's going to become more expensive for them to process it. And that's because, again, it's because banks are going to make it more difficult. By closing branches, businesses will have to go further to deposit cash at the end of the day because cash machines are closing, it'll be more difficult to withdraw cash. And so you can see it's a kind of self, it's a reinforcing circle that banks make it more difficult for us to use cash. Therefore cash uses to clients and then they use that as an excuse to reduce cash services even further. And who are the people are really going to suffer from this? You know, most people listening to this have gone through an exercise trying to get rid of cards in their wallets because they're carrying so many. But there's a significant part of the population that has no cards. Absolutely. Ash reports found that nearly half of people say that moving to a cashless society would be a problem for them. There are particular groups which are more likely to rely on cash such as people on low incomes. A lot of people find cash is useful for budgeting. You always know how much money you've got and it's very difficult to spend more than you have by accident in the way that you can with a card. So there are these certain disadvantaged groups, older people, people living in rural areas who are really going to be particularly at risk of cash dissipation. And once again, your forecast is that things are going to be substantially cashless in as little as 15 years. Of course they're cashless now nearly in places like China. People have gone terrifically over to on-the-spot payments with cards. Cash is by no means inevitable. The thing is if we want to be able to use cash in 15 years, we're going to have to fight for it now. We need a regulator that's prepared to stand up for the banks, make them do something they don't want to do, which is to foot the bill for allowing people to withdraw cash and for allowing businesses to deposit it. As we've seen with bank barrage closures, voluntary arrangements between the regulators and the banks aren't enough to stop communities being cut off. So we really need the government to appoint a regulator with a specific duty to safeguard access to cash and oversee the whole system.