Cash is as good as dead - PayPal CFO John Rainey

The growing popularity of digital forms of money, as well as digital and mobile payment systems is making cash obsolete and allows PayPal to expand its services and promote financial inclusion.  

“We’ve been talking about this phenomenon or trend for years now, and it’s here,” Rainey said in the recent interview with CNBC, referring to the decreasing presence of cash. 

He named several factors that might have contributed to the so-called death of cash. Digitization of payments and the growth of mobile devices are the most important of them, according to  John Rainey

“It’s where those two come together that really create opportunities like PayPal to really expand the suite of financial services, to large swaths of the population that are really underserved by how we characterize that today,” he said.

PayPal targets about 2 billion people around the world that have mobile devices but little to no access to banking services like checking accounts or savings accounts.

The company wants to increase its presence in places like India, Latin America, and Africa to provide people in those fast-growing regions with access to financial services.

Notably, PayPal is not the only company that seeks to capitalize on unbanked. Facebook's Libra project also targets these social groups. The head of the social media giant promoted his cryptocurrency project as a way to increase financial inclusion and democratize global financial system.

Notably, earlier this month, PayPal left Facebook’s cryptocurrency project to focus on its own services. 

Read also: PayPal confirm they are leaving the Libra Association