Irish Banks pushing for Cashless Banking?

Open_Window · 2016-01-21 13:46:03 UTC

What happens when Germany is out of the Euro?

dipole · 2016-01-21 13:55:50 UTC

Didn’t stop the Ansbacher great and good of Irish society.

temene · 2016-01-21 13:56:27 UTC

Well then it will be denominated in a furrin currency…

fungus · 2016-01-31 13:26:01 UTC

UK branch bank closures accelerate … thisismoney.co.uk/money/savi … paign=1490

Puck_may_be_Famous · 2016-01-31 19:50:40 UTC

ibtimes.com/norways-biggest- … sh-2276140

The largest bank in Norway has called for the country to stop using cash, the Local reported Friday. This comes as the latest move in a country that has been leading the global charge toward electronic money in recent years, with several banks already not offering cash in their branch offices and some industries seeking to cut back on paper currency.

DNB, the bank with the proposal, has said eliminating the use of cash would cut down on black market sales and crimes such as money laundering.

“Today, there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation and [the country’s central bank] Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use. That means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control. We believe that is due to under-the-table money and laundering,” Trond Bentestuen, a DNB executive, told Norwegian website VG, the Local reported.

“There are so many dangers and disadvantages associated with cash, we have concluded that it should be phased out,” he added.

The country has already moved in this direction naturally. Bentestuen estimated that about 6 percent of Norwegians use cash on a daily basis, with the numbers higher among elderly people.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance is opposed to the proposal, however, and other critics have raised concerns about privacy issues as well as how the change would affect tourists. Privacy advocates in Norway have expressed worries for years that, without cash, there would be no way for an individual to purchase something without being tracked.

In 2014, Finans Norge, a financial industry organization in Norway, said the country was on pace to be a cashless society by 2020, Ice News reported. While DNB said its proposal will take time to complete, executives suggested the country start phasing out cash by discontinuing the 1,000 kroner note so it could focus on updating its banking system.

“Eighty-five percent of our customers say that they never or only very rarely go to the bank. Therefore we think it is a mistake to maintain a very old structure with local branch offices. It is better to follow the customers and improve the offers where the customers are: digital,” Bentestuen said.

Still, the Finance Ministry has no plans to change its laws for now.

“There are many, including the elderly, who still want to use cash and that must be allowed. Moreover, it isn’t unproblematic for privacy to make every transaction traceable,” Finance Ministry spokesman Tore Vamraak said, according to the Local.

In the meantime, DNB and Norway’s second largest bank, Nordea, have already stopped using cash in their branch offices. And the movement toward a goal of no cash has been going on for a while. The Norwegian Hospitality Association pushed to eliminate consumers’ right to pay cash at all stores and restaurants in 2013, The Local reported.

BoyRacer · 2016-01-31 22:41:09 UTC

RELEASING THE FLOW OF DIGITAL MONEY HITTING THE TIPPING POINT OF ADOPTION - -> citi.com/icg/sa/digital_symposi … _money.pdf

The benefits of digital money are clear, yet global adoption rises by only a small amount every year. Can prioritizing high frequency and high reach money flows push consumer behavior toward the crucial tipping point of adoption?

Digital money, the migration from cash and checks to credit/debit cards, stored value instruments and other non-paper based mechanisms, is now part of the fabric of the modern world. As a stream of payment solutions and methods make their way into global markets, recognition of digital money – and its attendant hype – has grown rapidly. And there has already been an impact – in 2014, for example, people across the world carried out more than 360 billion non-cash transactions. The benefits of digitizing paper money are well-recognized: saving costs, increasing the speed at which money is transferred, and boosting financial inclusion among the world’s two billion unbanked.

But in most countries cash still rules. Despite the emergence of a wealth of new digital payment methods and solutions, significant sections of the world’s population still rely on paper money for their day-to-day transactions. About $13 trillion – almost 18% of global GDP – is withdrawn from ATMs annually. People’s devotion to cash is one of
the biggest remaining hurdles to the widespread adoption of digital money.

there is more

conork · 2016-02-01 05:51:52 UTC

Bloombergs op Ed

Bring On the Cashless Future

bloombergview.com/articles/2 … ess-future

Bobbyjones · 2016-02-01 11:21:16 UTC

Andy:

Open Window:

Andy:

Open Window:

Ah Bailed Out Bank of Ireland are leading the charge in the Orwellian plan to de-cashify society. They began to make it even harder and harder for their commercial customers about two years ago to lodge money and cheques with a teller, now they’re making it even more expensive… *but but but the consumer, laughing stock of europe, pencils for voting, progress… *

Personally if a Bank can not provide cash handling services within reason then it should not have a license.

However, this being Guinea pig Island (aka Ireland) where everything is run to suit itself I do not anticipate this to change and expect the literal and metaphorical cash burning piles to rise.

In the UK it’s
55p per 100 at Barclays
66p per 100 at RBS
60p per 100 at HSBC

Note, all of those are the lowest tarrifs, the charge increases depending on whether your an E-Banking customer.

So BOI is now in line with the largest UK Banks.

Other than stepping into line what’s your point?

What’s my point?
My point is it costs the bank money to handle coin and notes. I see nothing wrong with charging for the service. This is common practice in all European countires so we’re neither a “gunie pig” nor the “laughing stock of Europe”.

For a store with 100k in revenues and 50/50 cash/card split, this increase would cost them €60 a year.

A shop with that much cash going through tills anyways probably has its own ATM which it stocks with cash itself and is another mechanism to reduce costs of lodging cash

fungus · 2016-02-20 19:31:24 UTC

Another branch cull may be on the way …

RBS and Lloyds forecast to cut hundreds of branches

telegraph.co.uk/finance/news … um=twitter

Skippy_3 · 2016-02-20 20:54:21 UTC

Fascinating article on the use and abuse of the €500 note

Most EZ citizens have never possessed a €500 note. Even in Germany, one of the more cash-intensive countries in the Eurozone, a tiny fraction of 1% of the population hold a €500 note in their wallet at any one time (Bartsch et al. 2011). Many shops refuse to accept them. In short, they play little role in everyday – legitimate – economic life.

Yet €300bn of €500 notes have been issued, so someone has them. Some proportion are hoarded at home by people who prefer to keep their savings under the bed or in a safe, rather than in a bank. Yet it appears that most are held and used in the underground economy – by tax evaders, criminals, terrorists, and corrupt officials. According to analysis conducted by the Bundesbank, perhaps half remain in the Eurozone, the rest elsewhere in the world, particularly in Russia and the Balkans (Bartsch et al. 2011).

But try transporting significant sums of money in cash and its bulk and weight quickly become a problem. $1m equivalent in $20 bills weighs 50kg and takes four briefcases, too much for one courier. In $100 bills, the same amount weighs 10kg and fits into a single good-sized briefcase. In €500 notes, the equivalent value is 2.2kg and fits in the corner of a briefcase. No wonder the €500 note is the payment instrument of choice for cocaine smugglers.

dipole · 2016-02-20 21:23:08 UTC

reuters.com/article/swiss-ba … SL8N15V25M

I heard a radio report where it was mentioned that €500 would be replaced by Swiss Franc 1000 note as preferred currency for criminals.
Only problem is that it is being hoarded by people who don’t like paying negative interest rates.

JohnnyTheFox · 2016-02-22 18:32:27 UTC

Skippy 3:

Fascinating article on the use and abuse of the €500 note

Most EZ citizens have never possessed a €500 note. Even in Germany, one of the more cash-intensive countries in the Eurozone, a tiny fraction of 1% of the population hold a €500 note in their wallet at any one time (Bartsch et al. 2011). Many shops refuse to accept them. In short, they play little role in everyday – legitimate – economic life.

Yet €300bn of €500 notes have been issued, so someone has them. Some proportion are hoarded at home by people who prefer to keep their savings under the bed or in a safe, rather than in a bank. Yet it appears that most are held and used in the underground economy – by tax evaders, criminals, terrorists, and corrupt officials. According to analysis conducted by the Bundesbank, perhaps half remain in the Eurozone, the rest elsewhere in the world, particularly in Russia and the Balkans (Bartsch et al. 2011).

But try transporting significant sums of money in cash and its bulk and weight quickly become a problem. $1m equivalent in $20 bills weighs 50kg and takes four briefcases, too much for one courier. In $100 bills, the same amount weighs 10kg and fits into a single good-sized briefcase. In €500 notes, the equivalent value is 2.2kg and fits in the corner of a briefcase. No wonder the €500 note is the payment instrument of choice for cocaine smugglers

.

For all the talk about “tax evaders, criminals, terrorists, and corrupt officials” there is still a large cohort of regular Ivans and Omars who keep their life savings in a USD 100 notes or EUR 500 notes as a safeguard against unstable banking systems and volatile local currencies. In many countries of the former Soviet Union, and I’m sure elsewhere too, it isn’t unusual for someone with even modest income to save a bit each month in local currency until you have accumulated enough to purchase a USD 100 note or EUR 500 note and then keep your savings in that form. In Russia at least it is rare to encounter a bank that will offer any smaller denominations to someone wanting to buy foreign currency. I’ve had a few visitors arrive from Russia with a few €500 notes as their spending money for a couple of weeks in Ireland and it is a major pain in the hole. No shops will take them so I have to go into the bank and lodge them to my account (with potential for awkward questions down the line) and then take out smaller denominations. You’d wonder how criminals and terrorists can make use of the notes when they finally come to using them for regular day to day expenditure. It’s a similar story to some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric citing the example of refugees trying to use €500 notes to buy a pack of cigarettes in Greece or the Balkans when they land there. To the intended audience the mere fact that someone is carrying a €500 note suggests ostentatious wealth but the reality is that one or two of these notes is probably the only thing of value these people have to their names.

This isn’t to argue that the EU has any obligation to provide a store of value for citizens of other countries but it should be recognised that there are legitimate users of the notes outside of the the EU, not just criminals and terrorists. In pre-Euro days much was made of how valuable this tendency was for the US as it was effectively getting “free money” as a large chunk of its issued notes were being stored under mattresses in other parts of the world. But, as the article notes, that benefit has evaporated to a large extent at a time when interest rates are close to zero.

NegativeEquity · 2016-02-22 20:10:06 UTC

The large notes are also handy for storing some of your savings beyond the reach of government confiscation.

JohnnyTheFox · 2016-02-22 20:31:26 UTC

As long as confiscation doesn’t involve invalidating the currency overnight…

NegativeEquity · 2016-02-22 20:41:34 UTC

Very true however at the moment it looks like it’ll be in the form of something along the lines of the pension levy or negative interest rates.

dolanbaker · 2016-02-22 20:43:16 UTC

Less cash means fewer cash in transit jobs!

JohnnyTheFox · 2016-02-22 20:47:00 UTC

For the Euro, yes. I was still thinking along the lines of the situation in Russia that gives rise to the tendency for people to want to keep savings in cash in other currencies. The rouble has been subject to confiscatory replacements four times in the last 100 years, most recently in 1991.

conork · 2016-02-22 20:50:33 UTC

The original concept of notes was to prevent people carrying bulky heavy gold and silver coins. They used to be issued by gold smiths. Should they try push to hard, and people are forced to carry large wads of bulky heavy notes, it could potentially push people back to the old reliable.

BoyRacer · 2016-03-07 06:21:36 UTC

Swedes predict ‘death’ of cash in five years - -> thelocal.se/20160304/swedes- … five-years

jammyBastard · 2016-03-07 09:41:08 UTC

Do we have limits here on cash transactions? We got an email from a jeweller we’ve used in Antwerp about new strict Belgian limits on cash transactions i.e. nothing can be paid for with more than 3000 euro cash.

I’m not aware of any such AML rules in Ireland, other than the banks asking what the money is for if you move more than 10k.