The ATM Industry Association, a trade group representing ATM deployers, manufacturers and processors, has released a humorous video designed to defend cash against the perception that it is disappearing.

“Reports of the death of cash have been greatly exaggerated,” commented Mike Lee, CEO of ATMIA.

ATMIA reported that idea for the video was conceived by its ATM Cash Council, whose mission is to portray what it says is the truth about cash by tracking global cash demand, circulation and usage today, whilst protecting the freedom of the world's citizens to choose to use cash if they so wish.

“Unfortunately, MasterCard and Visa continue to spend millions of marketing dollars on misrepresentative, pseudo-scientific anti-cash material to feed the illusion, which they largely manufactured, that cash is dying.”

Yet, by all measures, cash remains the most important kind of money in the world, the association said, adding that the key theme of the video, which will be posted on YouTube and other social media, is that cash lives on because it is fungible and this quality has never been replicated by digital systems, as explained on the video by Stephen Dubner, author of the global business best-selling book “Freakonomics.”