The ability to pay by cash may be on its way to becoming a thing of the past. Moneris, a debit and credit card payment processing company, predicts only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada will likely be done using cash by 2030. The Toronto-based firm says Canada has become one of the leaders in adopting new payment methods.

“We are on our way to become a cashless society,” Angela Brown, President and CEO of Moneris, told BNN in an interview Wednesday. “I would say that young people will close the deal and really eliminate those last bastions of cash payments.”

Brown said while consumers are contributing to the cashless movement, more and more merchants are aiming to steer clear of accepting cash, as well.

“Merchants are driving this change,” she said.  “It’s not just a consumer movement.”

Brown noted there can be security concerns with cash, and merchants dealing with food, for example, don’t want to be handling physical money.

She also pointed out that Canada is ahead of countries like the U.S. when it comes to using digital forms of payment, but some European countries are even closer to becoming cashless societies.