Towards the cashless society
From Hal Turner
UH OH! BANKS IN AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCE WITHDRAWAL LIMITS
From August 20th 2023 Westpac Bank Australia customers will be prohibited from withdrawing more than $1000 from their accounts per day.
Other Banks will follow.
Access to your own cash . . . . SEVERELY LIMITED.
Still think Banking troubles are about a computer Virus?
Then, there’s THIS:
I think it would be worth it to mention who the majority owners are of all banks in Australia.
Blackrock Vanguard SSGA and all their affiliate hedge funds
— Specter Flowers ♏ LIFE PATH #11 💪✨️🙏 (@Specterflowers) June 15, 2023
One needs only wonder why, if Australian Banks are owned mostly by U.S. financial firms, the people of Australia will be limited to their own money? Since it is U.S. Firms that __seem__ to be affecting withdrawal limits in Australia, then wouldn’t it be logical to believe they might try the same thing here in the US or over in Europe?
Forewarned is forearmed. Act accordingly.
I could not see anything that specifically relates to Westpac, but I did find this from the end of March in the Australian media
ANZ kills cash withdrawals in some branches amid public outcry
Outraged community members have taken to social media to blast one big bank’s decision to strip back services across some branches.
There has been public outrage as one of the country’s biggest banks revealed it would stop handling cash at some branches, citing a significant drop in in-branch transactions.
ANZ told NCA NewsWire on Thursday that some services would be stripped, confirming customers would not be able to withdraw cash over the counter in some locations.
Alternatively, staff members will assist customers in using onsite Smart ATMs and coin deposit machines.
“There are a small number of branches where we no longer handle cash at a counter,” an ANZ spokesperson said.
“At these branches, cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals can continue to be made by using our Smart ATM and coin deposit machines and we have staff on hand to help customers that might be using them for the first time.”
Thursday’s announcement has sparked public outcry on social media, with some community members threatening to ditch the bank.
“With all the hacking going on it seems crazy to me to try and do away with cash,” one person wrote.
“Any bank that follows this path will lose customers and eventually go broke … it is bad enough that they are closing branches,” wrote another.
Some users have called the move “utterly ridiculous” and “disgusting”.
A major Australian bank has canned over-the-counter cash transactions in some branch locations, in a move towards a cashless society.
ANZ said it decided to scrap in-branch transactions as demand had halved in the past four years.
The “small number” of affected branch locations, which were not disclosed, have smart ATMs where such transactions can be performed, ANZ told 7NEWS.com.au.
“Cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals can continue to be made by using our Smart ATM and coin deposit machines,” ANZ said.
Swinburne University technology professor Steve Worthington dubbed the future-forward move as exclusionary.
“Senior citizens, new migrants, people who are disabled, they do need face-to-face help, there’s a danger here of excluding some elements of our society,” he told 7NEWS.
But ANZ told 7NEWS.com.au: “We have staff on hand to help customers who might be using (smart ATMs) for the first time.”
The bank is not the only one moving towards a cashless society — but ANZ’s recent step away from cash handling was thrust into the spotlight when a Melbourne 3AW talk back radio host responding to an email from a concerned listener.
7NEWS understands ANZ has been dealing with fewer cash transactions nationally, not just in the branches which have called it quits on face-to-face transactions.
All I could find in the NZ media was this, from 2021 and behind a paywall.
New Zealand banks ASB, ANZ, BNZ and Kiwibank phasing out cash foreign exchange services
The decision by banks to ditch cheques has been widely broadcast – to the ire of older customers – but it seems banks are also quietly phasing out another service.
In New Zealand this happens without any scrutiny from the media.
It goes unananounced.
One day you go to your bank and find it won’t accept cash any more.
