Denmark has revealed it has recorded its first-ever year in history where it did not experience any bank robberies.
According to Finextra, Finansforbundet, Denmark’s finance workers’ union, said that the fall has coincided with many banks completely closing their branch cash registers.
The union highlighted that back in 2000, the country saw 221 bank robberies. However, since 2017, there have been fewer than ten a year until 2022 when it fell to zero.
Denmark has seen declining cash usage in recent years as many people move to electronic alternatives such as contactless payments.
Finansforbundet deputy chairman Steen Lund Olsen said, “It is nothing short of fantastic. Because it is an absolutely extreme strain on the affected employees every time it happens.”
The union noted, however, that employees still face potential violence and threats, with much of the abuse now occurring digitally and over the phone.
The Bank of Italy, the country’s central bank, recently shot back at the new Italian government over its plans to promote cash over digital payments.
The government led by Giorgia Meloni has proposed lifting the legal limit for cash transactions from €1000 to €5000 and enabling merchants to refuse digital payments of less than €60.
Fabrizio Balassone – chief of the Bank of Italy’s research unit – has testified in Italian parliament that ‘limitations to cash use pose a hurdle to several forms of crime and (tax evasion).
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