ANZ will cease facilitating withdrawals and deposits from a number of its Australian branches as it looks to push its customers toward using an ever-dwindling number of ATMs and deposit machines.
The decision has received pushback, with critics such as Patricia Sparrow, CEO of the Council on the Ageing, telling The Australian that the change could disproportionately affect older people who are less capable of going digital. Others have suggested it would make fiat users more susceptible to technical issues. The move has also renewed fears of a push to eliminate cash and that cash could soon be replaced by central bank digital currencies.
An ANZ spokesperson said that the affected branches are all metropolitan branches that have ATMs and deposit machines nearby and that the move was partially prompted by in-branch transactions decreasing by more than 50% over the past four years.
The development comes as Australia gradually transitions to a cashless society, with the percentage of retail payments made with cash falling from 59% in 2007, to just 27% in 2019, according to a March 16 bulletin from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
