Banks advising people to keep cash at home as “geopolitical threats” worsen
www.theguardian.com
Dutch banks are going to advise consumers to keep cash at home because of the increase in geopolitical tension in the world, said a spokesperson of the Netherlands Association of Banks (NVB). It will be the first time that the banks give this advice.

The linked article covers Sweden and Norway’s rethink. The spolier below is the full article covering Dutch banks.

full article on the Dutch banks story

Banks advising people to keep cash at home as “geopolitical threats” worsen
WEDNESDAY, 11 DECEMBER 2024 - 13:40

Dutch banks are going to advise consumers to keep cash at home because of the increase in geopolitical tension in the world, said a spokesperson of the Netherlands Association of Banks (NVB). It will be the first time that the banks give this advice.

The bank association is going to discuss this after the Christmas break with the Maatschappelijk Overleg Betalingsverkeer (MOB). Social organizations, such as elderly organizations and the Consumers’ Association, but also the Dutch Payments Association, and interest groups, such as Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and MKB-Nederland, work together in this.

“We are giving integral advice about how you can have your financial affairs in order if there are problems with payment structures. This can be about cash money, the denominations needed, and how much that should be. But also about keeping an extra bank account or credit card,” said the NVB spokesperson to ANP.

Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans said on WNL op Zondag that the Netherlands should prepare for all possible war scenarios due to the threat from Russia. He also advised people to have cash at home.

The NVB does know whether people have already withdrawn money from their savings. “We have no view of this. But if everyone withdraws some money from their savings account, you will not immediately see it come back in huge numbers," said the spokesperson.

He emphasized that banks are very well prepared for all kinds of threats like cyber attacks, which means that customers’ savings are always safe. “Cyber ​​resilience has been a top priority for banks for years. Banks inform each other about incidents, analyze them jointly, and share effective countermeasures,” the spokesperson underlines.

The advice of the Maatschappelijk Overleg Betalingsverkeer is expected to be published in the first quarter. A specific date has not been announced for this as of yet.

The Dutch Association of Insurers reacted skeptically to the advice to keep cash on hand. It can be difficult to prove the amount of cash that was actually in the home at the time of the burglary, which can make it more complicated to submit a damage claim, a spokesperson for the insurance association said.

Compensation for stolen cash usually varies between 250 and 500 euros, depending on the insurer, she said. “If you have large sums of money in your home, this can lead to distress in the event of a burglary.”

The association also warns that the risk of a break-in increases when burglars know that there is a significant amount of cash at the location.

“Cash in the house is covered by your home contents insurance in principle, but there are limitations,” said a spokesperson for the insurance association. She said people should review the terms of their insurance policy to familiarize themselves with coverage for stolen cash.

Reporting by ANP

Indeed it is absolutely foolish for people to make themselves 100% cashless, needlessly exposing themselves to the vulnerabilities of being helpless when electronic payments fail. The advice from Dutch banks is inspired by Putin’s war, but we should be smarter yet, and realise there are many other peacetime situations as well where you are fucked if the bank has nannying power to control your money (e.g. recall what happened to Wikileaks; and recall the last time your bank card just spontaneously quit working unexpectedly).

The advice of the article does not go far enough. Of course you should have a stash of banknotes. But that’s not enough because merely having the cash does nothing to fix the dismantling of our cash infrastructure. Suggestion: for 4+ months straight, pay for everything with cash, including utility bills, mortgage, etc. Suppliers who never receive cash payments are dropping cash acceptance. They need to be made aware that cash feeds them – make the metrics proper. It’s also important for both payer and payee to become aware of payment incompatibilities and injustices. Payees need to know they have cash payers. And cash payers need to become informed of which suppliers are subjecting everyone to forced-banking.

(BTW, I discovered the Dutch bank article was in Cloudflare and has no free-world reports; so instead the full text was nested in the post and the link goes to the Scandinavia story)

    • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
      2•1 day ago

      Thanks for the reference! IIUC, it’s not a full article but just 2 sentences, correct? (edit: nope)

      That link only gave me Dutch, so maybe that service needs JavaScript enabled. I used a Lingva instance to get this:

      AMSTERDAM - Dutch consumers are advised to have cash in -house because of the increased geopolitical threats, says a spokesperson for the Dutch Banking Association (NVB). It is the first time that the payment sector has come up with such advice for households.

      Note as well that lingva, mozhi, and simplytranslate are front-ends to Google translate worth noting, but I don’t think they offer a webpage translation service.

      (update) After running a ton of JavaScript, I was able to see a full article.

      this is the text

      Banks: ‘Keep cash at home due to geopolitical threat’
      ANP/DFT
      Dec 11, 2024in MONEY

      AMSTERDAM - Dutch consumers are being advised to keep cash at home due to increased geopolitical threats, a spokesperson for the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) says. It is the first time that the payment sector has issued such advice for households.

      After the Christmas holidays, the banking association will consult with the Social Consultation on Payment Transactions (MOB). In addition to the banking sector, De Nederlandsche Bank and social organisations such as senior citizens’ organisations and the Consumers’ Association, the Dutch Payments Association and interest groups such as Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and MKB-Nederland also work together in this.

      More cash The spokesperson could not say what amount the banks are thinking of. “We will provide comprehensive advice on how you can best arrange your financial affairs, should there be problems with the payment infrastructure,” said the NVB spokesperson. “That could be about cash, in which denominations and how much that should be. But also about maintaining an extra bank account or credit card.”

      SEE ALSO:

      Citizens should also be aware of cyber attack at bank, DNB warns: ‘Keep €50 in a sock for emergencies’ In November, De Nederlandsche Bank already named geopolitical tensions as the main threat to the Dutch financial system, closely followed by cybercrime.

      Service disrupted Director Olaf Sleijpen also pointed out the advisability for consumers to keep some cash at home, in case the ATMs and payment machines are out of order for a while.

      “The same goes for society: you shouldn’t assume that it will always work,” he said. “There may be situations in which financial services are disrupted for a longer period of time. Then you are talking about the resilience of society. The government has a good overview of what you should have in the house just in case, and that also includes an amount of cash for groceries for two days.”

      Bank cards, credit cards and iDeal In 2021, the Nibud advised keeping a minimum amount of €50 at home for emergencies, but that amount was mainly due to the risk of a short-term malfunction in mind.

      Nibud recently told Kassa that it advises having enough money for a few days’ groceries at home, plus some extra for gas or something like that.

      Electronic money transactions are vulnerable, among other things, because of their dependence on the Internet and electricity networks, which could be affected by an attack.

      Visa and Mastercard Payments with bank and credit cards in the Netherlands run almost entirely via the Visa and Mastercard networks. iDeal and transfer run via a different system that is separate from them.

      • .Donuts
        2•1 day ago

        Sorry it was literally the first relevant link that I could find, figured it would be better than the placeholder link that you had. I’ll try to do better next time