Young people and Londoners are leading the way in adopting cashless payments in the U.K., according to research by Mintel. The U.K.-based market research firm also found that non-bank electronic payment methods such as PayPal are trusted more than contactless and mobile card payments.

According to Mintel's research, 38 percent of British people are interested in being able to make mobile payments and an enthusiastic 8 percent claim they would apply for mobile payment services straight away. Eighteen percent of U.K. Internet users say they would prefer to be able to stop using cash altogether.

Support for a cashless society is strongest in London, with 30 percent prepared to stop using cash. And it is the nation's youth who are leading the way in new payment forms. Twenty-two percent of those aged 25 to 34 have used Barclays' Pingit peer-to-peer mobile payment system, compared to 5 percent of those aged 45-54. About 17 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds have used the virtual currency Bitcoin at least once, Mintel found.

However, consumers are more concerned about the security of mobile payments than card payments, Mintel said. Sixty-five percent of consumers showed some concern about mobile payment security and 61 percent showed some concern about contactless cards, compared with 34 percent who were concerned about using debit cards and the 33 percent who were concerned about credit cards.

Consumers were notably less concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal, which protect users' financial data from being seen by third parties. Only 27 percent of Internet users are concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal, Mintel found.

In January, five U.K. financial institutions announced that they would roll out Zapp mobile payments for their customers. The participants, HSBC, First Direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank, have a total customer base of 18 million.

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