The Inexplicable

 

My daughter has been doing some work for her grandmother over the past year. Grandma pays in cash. For a long time none of us were going anywhere so that cash piled up in my daughter’s bedroom. Recently we decided it was high time we ventured to her bank to get it deposited.

To be honest, we couldn’t remember which branch was the one where she opened her account so we just headed for the one closest to the Mall. She went in, I waited.

And waited.

When she came out she was shaking her head.

“I can’t deposit my money,” she said.

“Why?”

“It’s a cashless branch.”

“A what?”

“The tellers’ windows are covered up by a big sign. A woman came out of her office and told me they are a cashless bank but I could use the ATM.”

We sat there in silence for a moment. A cashless bank. 

Then we consulted the Internet and chose another branch. She deposited her money.

Yes, we’ve gotten a few laughs telling the story of the cashless bank. “What’ll they think up next? Foodless restaurants? Bookless libraries?”

Some very basic digging shows that her bank is piloting the cashless bank as a response to customer behavior. Also to cut costs. Of course. Banks that deal in cash need more human beings to serve their patrons.

It’s true that I haven’t had a great need to go inside a bank in the recent past, which was good because the pandemic made it much more difficult. I can deposit most checks electronically. I can get cash from an ATM. 

Is the cashless bank the future of banking? Does that bother you? Or does it make perfect sense?