The Australian Payments Clearing Association has called on government, regulators and payments industry participants to develop policies for managing the decline in cash usage.APCA's view, in a report published yesterday, is that while there are no indications that cash will ever disappear, its is in the early stages of a decline that will result in its use settling at much lower levels in future."This change will require management," APCA said in the report, 'Towards the Digital Economy'.For example, policy makers and industry need to ensure that cash is not the only option in any payment context.APCA also said the industry needed to understand the cost of cash for consumers and make this more transparent, so that people could make informed choices about the payment methods they used.It said the industry would also need to assist the ATM industry adjust to lower usage levels.APCA cited recent reports by the Reserve Bank and RFi, which both show that cash use in payments is declining, relative to other payment methods. Both studies found that cash remains the most important payment method for low value transactions.The RBA research, published in June, was based on a survey of 1167 respondents, who kept a diary of payments over seven days last November. Consumers made an average of 13 payments a week with a little under half (47 per cent) of those payments being made with cash. In 2010, when the RBA last conducted the survey, 62 per cent of payments were made with cash. In 2007 cash made up 69 per cent of consumer payments.The RBA found that the value of cash payments had also fallen - down from 38 per cent of total weekly payments in 2007 to 29 per cent in 2010 and 18 per cent in the latest survey.RFi asked people what payment methods they used in a typical month. Up to September 2012, close to 90 per cent of people said they used cash regularly.That number dipped in 2013, coinciding with the rollout of contactless point of sale terminals around the country, and has settled at around 75 per cent.APCA commissioned further research from RFi, which predicts that cash usage will fall another 20 per cent by 2018. It said the majority of cash displacement would occur due to card-based payments.APCA surveyed its member organisations and found that cash purchases from the Reserve Bank and from other sources had declined by three per cent a year between 2010/11 and 2012/13.