Another step has been made toward a cashless society. As branches continue to scale back services a large bank has confirmed that some customers can no longer withdraw cash over the counter.
ANZ has confirmed that some branches no longer handle cash at the counter while others are directing customers to Smart ATMs.
This means that ANZ bank has withdrawn cash from many of its branches which might not be the major ones but they might be the rural and regional ones. It had to start from somewhere. So it will no longer hold cash in these branches which means that their customers will no longer be able to make cash withdrawals at these branches. Even though ANZ was highly criticised it is going ahead with it anyway.
This is a worldwide trend where it is becoming a general move of the banks to reduce their customers’ access to cash. The digitilisation and full control of humanity is taking up momentum. As you can all see banks are having major changes in their operation.
While some might think that the Smart ATMs will save the customers this is not the case. Firstly since 2017 the number of ATMs has fallen from 14 000 to 6 000. This means that people cannot withdraw their cash from the bank have less ATMs around and the amount they can withdraw is limited too. Henceforth this is not only a worldwide move to make society go cashless but to coerce people to use digital methods of transactions.
In addition the elderly people with disability new migrants and people in general who need face to face help will be disadvantaged. Profs. Steve Worthington says that this is clearly an exclusion of a facet of society in a society which talks of inclusion all the time.