this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. a spent force — cash is in decline, but in a world of digital payments who gets left behind? plus, called to account. the former boss of wells fargo is banned from banking for life and hit with a record $17 million fine over a massive sales scandal.

we start with cash, the queen famously never carries it but neither, it seems, do a growing number of people around the world. today researchers here in the uk are warning that the rise of digital payments could mean vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, less tech savvy, or less well off, get left behind. and they say a few technology firms could end up with far too much power over the economy. so let's take a closer look and give you some of the numbers. three years, ago electronic payments overtook cash in the uk, and by 2018 just 28% of payments were in cash. that is forecast to fall to just 9% by 2028. across the rest of europe cash still dominates, for now. but for now the trend is definitely downwards. across the countries that use the euro,

over 78% of transactions are done with cash. but that share is falling and tends to be for smaller payments. the move away from cash is now a major issue for the people who run the world's money. the bank for international settlements in switzerland, a sort of united nations for central banks, said this week it's looking into launching a digital currency. last year an independent review in the uk found that the days of cash could be numbered. we are already seeing that the cash infrastructure is showing signs of collapse. i don't think we have more than a couple of years before something that's really important to the uk, our ability to get cash and spend cash, is in seriousjeopardy. john detrixhe reports on the future of finance for the online news service, quartz. who gets left behind in this cashless society? this tends to fall ha rd est cashless society? this tends to fall hardest on the poor and the elderly, people in rural areas and small businesses. they are more likely to

rely on cash and they can be more likely to rely on cash but they also might be... this is also closely tied to bankruptcies and use the —— bank branches and this is closely related to them relying on local branches for advice and financial services. they go very closely together. yeah, cash usage is in decline, particularly in the uk. the uk is further ahead when it comes to this phenomenon. we've been asking viewers globally to get in touch with their thoughts and how they feel about the transition, and we had an interesting one about ten minutes ago where they were saying when you ta ke ago where they were saying when you take cash away, money loses its value to you in a way so you're not aware of the cost of things if you can tap, tap, tap wherever you go with plastic. are we in danger of

money, when it becomes plastic, not becoming real? we're not really aware of how much we are spending, saving, and we're thinking about the future. there are definitely studies that back up and suggest people are more likely to spend more and people have a harder time budgeting, and that's one of the issues with people moving over... moving away from cash before they're ready. particularly the elderly, particularly vulnerable people might have a harder time budgeting their money. i don't think everybody has that problem. i think it is fairto everybody has that problem. i think it is fair to say people do adapt andi it is fair to say people do adapt and i think culturally we can catch up, but the question, and this has been an issue in sweden, which has moved along this route much more quickly than other countries... they are the most cashless society in the world. exactly, yes. one of their big themes is moving away from cash is fine, the pace is critical. if it moves too quickly, society might not

be able to catch up. lots of people have been looking at different solutions to try to put the brakes on, shall we say, this slide to a cashless society. one suggestion is a levy. do you think that's the answer? there certainly seems to be a role for the government to play, and presumably that's going to have to be funded somehow and it makes sense that if you look at cash is a public good, which many do, and you want to make sure all parts of society are looked after and some don't fall between the cracks because they are not as marketable or profitable for the banking institutions, then it makes sense for the government to play a role so there may be a solution there. many experts seem to be pointing in that direction. john, thanks for coming in and have a lovely weekend. when timor available on that story on our website and get in touch with me on twitter —— plenty more available. the former boss of wells fargo has been banned from the banking industry for life and fined

a record $17.5 million following years of financial misconduct at the lender. regulators found thatjohn stumpf and seven other executives failed to stop cheating by staff, which saw them create fake accounts on a massive scale to boost sales figures. from new york, samira hussain reports. during john stump‘s tenure as ceo of wells fargo, it was revealed bank employees opened as many as 2 million fake accounts without customers loop is knowledge and as pa rt customers loop is knowledge and as part of a settlement with the us government mr stump will have to pay 2.7 $17.5 million in fines and is banned from working in banking. before the scandal came to light he took early retirement and walked away with $130 million in stocks, cash and other compensation. the nation's fourth largest bank, wells fargo, has remained mired in

restructuring and regulatory reforms since 2016 all stemming from the scandals at its consumer facing community bank. let's go to asia now, where companies are assessing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. among them, the film industry, which was expecting a big weekend at the box office. rico hizon is following the story. it is hard to imagine where this ends. with the virus is spreading across the world, the impact has been felt all across the industries? in china especially, victoria, and many chinese movie—goers are staying indoors with the spread of this coronavirus. according to analysts the film industry will take a hit and it could cost the mainland box office more than 200 million us dollars this weekend as all seven chinese films, victoria, scheduled

for release during the upcoming lunar new year holidays has been pulled from movie houses. not only that, beijing has cancelled all major public events for lunar new year as authorities try to contain this outbreak. this situation has also plunged the global travel and tourism industry into crisis. you have cancelled journeys, victoria, hotel bookings and travel bans which could cost firms billions of dollars. economists are saying if this virus gets worse and spreads even further, this will definitely impact the first—quarter gdp growth of china. as for the stock market, asia is mixed with investors continuing to watch the situation surrounding the fast spreading coronavirus. the lunar new year is approaching and many markets in the region are shut from today, and for some right until monday, including the likes of singapore, china, hong kong and taiwan. hope you have managed to get some

rest stop in thank you, rico. —— hope you have managed to get some rest. thank you, rico. let's return to the world economic forum in davos, switzerland now, where sustainability is the main theme. president trump caused controversy at the event earlier this week when he attacked what he called environmental prophets of doom. sally bundock asked the head of sustainability at coca cola about his comments and her own compa ny‘s policies. coca—cola operates in over 200 countries and james quincey, ourchairman and ceo, was one of those who wrote an open letter to president trump to say, "we've got to focus on climate change, we're going to focus on what the paris accord is saying we need to do, and we've set a science—based target, " and so there are other ceos who are similar minded to james quincey who've done that. i think that is super important because, you know, in our system in the united states, at some point we will have a new leader. they may believe and support the issues that are happening or may not. but business cannot only respond to what the leader thinks, they need to respond to what they need to do. but at coca—cola, you have a huge responsibility.

if you look at some organisations, they call you the worst plastic polluter globally for two years now. the reality is if you're a big business and the largest in the beverage injury, that's unfortunate. it's the reality, though. it bothers those of us who work there and we want to act and make those changes and we share the vision that we want to eliminate single—use plastics. we believe in the circular economy, and so the plastic that's already out there, let's clean it up. you might have read about we just took a lot of marine plastic and created another bottle out of it. people thought that was not possible. it's a small initiative but we're working to expand it. but also the other plastics we've been able to collect, we've taken it to centres like one here close by in france, and they can take one bottle, create another bottle with it and keep that same plastic that was in the pollution as part of the economy so you are not creating new. we share that and we know that we have to eliminate,

over time, single—use plastics, but it won't disappear overnight. will it be passed on to coca—cola customers, the cost of climate change? right now we are making the upfront investment and we are the ones investing in that. the reality is over time, as more people participate in the solutions, pricing is of the solution should come down and i caution that should impact the consumer. the reality todayisit impact the consumer. the reality today is it does and we are bearing the burden of the cast as the businesses, but it is important to do that. british business and trade groups have told the uk government that fairand have told the uk government that fair and sustainable emigration is critical for growth after brexit. in an open letter to the home secretary priti patel, they also welcomed signals that a £30,000 minimum salary test could be dropped. last year, businesses warned that more than 60% of alljobs in the uk came under the £30,000 threshold.

that's it for the business briefing this hour. i thought we couldn't show you the markets but we can, i was teasing you! as we heard from rico, lots of asian markets are closed because of the lunar new year, so interesting to what happens when they reopen and we get to get some sense of what the financial market reaction is to the spreading virus, the coronavirus, spreading virus, the coronavirus, spreading across the world. at the moment, 25 dead from the virus and more than 800 people in china currently infected. that is it for the moment of. up next is the news briefing, we will go through all the stories from across the world, including an update of what is going on with the isabel dal santo ‘s scandal and the portuguese bank there. —— isabel dos santos. stay with us.

the government's spending watchdog says the construction of a high speed railway between london and northern england is billions of pounds over budget and years behind schedule. the national audit office says the government failed to understand the complexity of hs2. the government says it's already acting on the report's recommendations. tom burridge reports. as work to build a new high—speed line goes on in birmingham, criticism from the government's spending watchdog over management of the budget for hs2, which has ballooned. to day's report says the government and hs2 ltd underestimated the scale and hs2 ltd underestimated the scale and complexity of this project, and

that's one of the region is why the budget has risen so much. this is the vision for that site once a station is built here. the national audit office says risks and uncertainty weren't property but says the budget for phase one of hs2 is now robust. they've done an awful lot of work to understand the cost and they now have a better estimate of how much it will cost and how long it will ta ke to it will cost and how long it will take to build the railway between london and birmingham. that said, the programme as a whole is at a very early stage and risks remain. some conservatives have urged the prime minister to rethink. other seniorfigures say hs2 prime minister to rethink. other senior figures say hs2 has to go ahead. this part of the country, the north, turned decisively to the conservative party and the prime minister has talked about levelling up. this is literally the investment that will level up the economy. the cost of the second phase of this project, linking the city to leeds and to manchester, is more uncertain

because it's at a much earlier stage. a final decision is due next month. tom burridge, bbc news, in birmingham. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: chinese authorities are taking drastic action to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has now claimed 25 lives. spain's prime minister is due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the government's response to a storm which has killed 13 people so far. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the daily mail, which asks if the deadly coronavirus has arrived in the uk. according to authorities, the death toll in china currently stands at 25, with 830 confirmed cases, with another 13 cases being detected in other countries. in the new york times,

the trump administration has