Abstract The incorporation of new technologies to financial activities implies challenges and opportunities to financial authorities. They are reacting to the unavoidable trend towards digitalization of financial activities with the objective of preserving stable and efficient payment and financial systems. Uruguay, for instance, has promoted the use of electronic payment instruments and tested in the real economy a central bank digital currency called e-Peso. Digitalization of payment systems would reduce transaction costs by (partially) replacing less efficient means of payment, e.g. paper-cash and checks. In this paper we find that the cost of using cash in Uruguay is approximately 0.61% of GDP. Interestingly, 98.1% of this cost is borne by the private sector: banks and retailers 77.1% and households 21.0%. The cost of using checks is equivalent to 0.04% of GDP. Overall, replacing paper-cash and checks by other (electronic) means of payment would imply a transaction cost reduction for the private sector of the equivalent of up to 0.65% of GDP.

中文翻译：

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乌拉圭使用现金和支票的成本

摘要将新技术纳入金融活动对金融当局意味着挑战和机遇。他们正在对金融活动数字化不可避免的趋势做出反应，以保持稳定，高效的支付和金融系统为目标。例如，乌拉圭促进了电子支付工具的使用，并在实体经济中测试了一种称为e-Peso的中央银行数字货币。付款系统的数字化将通过（部分）替代效率较低的付款方式（例如，现金和支票）来降低交易成本。在本文中，我们发现乌拉圭的现金使用成本约为GDP的0.61％。有趣的是，这笔费用的98.1％由私营部门承担：银行和零售商77.1％，家庭21.0％。使用支票的成本相当于GDP的0.04％。总体而言，用其他（电子）支付方式代替纸质现金和支票意味着私营部门的交易成本降低幅度相当于GDP的0.65％。