I made a withdrawal from one of the big 4 today for a few K, and the woman seemed nervous, or perhaps even scared that I was getting money out. Thinking about it later, I pondered the possibility she was scared because they did not have enough real cash to hand out in the event depositors came to get their money. And then I found this article from about a year ago- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/australian-banks-need-to-increase-capital-reserves/6617910 Thoughts?
Lol. I asked her the maximum daily withdrawal, and I was expecting her to say 10,000, and she said seemingly nervous "oh 5,000, it just depends (she got a bit incoherent), if we, you know, is there (more incoherence). Then she said "you will lose your interest for this month" (it was a term deposit), and I thought ok that's fine, "and you can't make another withdrawal or it will cost 2.50$". Well there is a difference between not being able to make a withdrawal, and a 2.50$ fee for doing so. Based on the structure of her sentence she was trying to deter me from making any more withdrawals.
So I overstretched a bit thinking a few K would matter to their reserves, but still an interesting article from a year ago nonetheless.
Walked into nab the other day, took out 10k in cash there and then. Brick of greenbacks. No hassles.. Sold a car, bought a car... Cash is king! To answer the question of reserves... No. They don't have enough.
A $100 note is green.... To answer the question, NO. They don't hold enough physical reserves at branches to survive even a mild bank run. When I wanted a large cash withdrawal last year, I had to phone up and order cash in advance so that my branch would be stocked. It wasn't even a huge amount. I am certain that with just a small amount of withdrawal pressure I would have been told : NO, sorry we don't have enough cash on hand. Come back next week!
Indeed but I've only heard 'Jolly Green Giant' for the $100 but that's it. Greenback is purely USD in my little green book.
Should have got 20's, it's a more impressive brick. And turn up to collect in a trench coat, sunnies, and baseball cap, just for kicks.
Bwahahaha very funny you lot! As a reminder people the new $5 notes will be released in september. I suggest if your planning to stockpile cash do it with these crisp new notes in brand new bank wrapped brick of $500
Yes, the short answer is NO! Not in a full blown crisis anyway, but a Bank Holiday is the probable first response followed by an extension, and...... And as far as the Government guarantee is concerned, they are BROKE! They have SFA to honour the guarantee and all you will end up with is a pretty piece of paper that says 'Australian Treasury Bond'. 99 years at 0.1% interest! The Bond Markets will then price that at 5% of face value! IF you are lucky! JMO OC
She could have just had one of the regular AML/CTF suspicious matter refresher talks and was anxious about having to casually ask you about your plans, or was nervous from thinking about whether your cash withdrawal required her to raise a suspicious matter report with a responsible officer in the branch. There is some pressure on tellers around this.
Who would the government bail out first? Savers would be last in line. The politicians would probably be more than happy for ordinary citizens and savers to die of stress and sickness and be safely buried six feet under so there are fewer people to complain when the government's big mates all get bailed out.
I think that in Greece the first $10,000 was not touched in the 'Bail-In', and I suppose there will be something like that for the pensioners etc in any 'guarantee' situation. The details are just a guess, but I cannot see them shafting the pensioners like that. Any Government that did so could forget about governing for a generation. The ones last in line in a liquidation are ALWAYS the shareholders! As for the hierarchy of depositors I have no idea. You can bet the pollies will get 48 hours notice! Maybe every account balance over $10,000 no matter who it is. OC