Speaking at a meeting for Apple shareholders in California, Cook said he wanted to see the end of cash within his lifetime. As the CEO detailed the downsides of cash, he exposed a passion about the subject, according to a report by the «Business Insider» (by registration only).

The Apple chief went on to say, «there are things that Apple could do in financial services that will reveal themselves to us as we spend more time in the payments area.»

Asian Momentum

Apple as such isn’t a major financial technology provider yet. But Apple Pay, which allows iPhone and Mac users to link their credit cards to their Apple account is widely used and growing quickly in the Asian Pacific region.

Leading banks in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Japan have embraced Cook's technology. Australia by contrast so far has proved a tougher market for the Cupertino-based tech giant, with major banks resisting the implementation of the technology.

Switzerland a Tough Nut to Crack

In Switzerland, the banking industry has joined forces to develop its own independent payment system in a bid that was directed at Apple and Asian payment systems (Alipay). After initially developing two separate systems in parallel – Twint and Paymit – the industry in 2016 settled on Twint as the technology with the best chances of succeeding in a market that relies heavily on the use of payment cards – and to be sure, also on cash.

Thus, new payment technologies in Switzerland need to overcome the high hurdle of competing with a functioning system. Migros, one of the country's two giant retailers, for instance hasn't yet installed the Twint system as its customers are tied up through an integrated loyalty-cum-credit-card system that controlled is by the company and provides it with invaluable insights into customer behavior.