Norways 2 biggest banks stopped handling cash

Norways largest bank, DNB, has joined the relentless campaign by governments and big banks the world over to abolish cash, the physical embodiment of a nations monetary unit and the last tangible, if tenuous, link to the 19th-century gold standard.  Almost all of todays national currency notes, notably excluding the euro,  originated as claims to a definite weight of gold (or silver).  Predictably, a DNB spokesman justified its proposal to completely eliminate the use of cash in favor of digital checking accounts by claiming that the abolition of cash would reduce 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.  There are so many dangers and disadvantages associated with cash, we have concluded that it should be phased out.  Note the ominous implication of this absurd statement: any large or even moderate-sized financial transaction that people manage to keep private must involve criminal activity.  Indeed, in 2013, a Norwegian man had his home ransacked by police  after he purchased a PC, TVs and a washing machine for 80,000 kroner in cash from an inheritance he had received.

 

Read More: Norways 2 biggest banks stopped handling cash – Business Insider