It’s time to look at how money moves around in the digital age. It’s a common assumption that, when we make a bank transfer or card payment, the money in our account somehow makes its way from our account to that of the person or entity we’re paying. In fact, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Unless we use cash to pay for things, our financial transactions are conducted and overseen by others, be they banks, card issuers, payment networks, governments - and sometimes all of the above. Although these electronic payments are convenient, they come at a price.

It’s also easy for us to forget that the banking services we enjoy and that make our lives easier are not available to many other people throughout the world. The numbers of unbanked people out there may surprise you and their exclusion from the financial system costs both them and the world economy dear. 

We used many sources in the research for this episode, but a special mention must go once again to the book, The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains (2018), by Anthony Lewis. If you want to take a look at the Bank of England’s image we discuss in the episode then you can find it here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/how-do-card-payments-work

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeart Media: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

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