More Developments in Cash Services in Europe

Sweden’s Riksbank is threatening banks with the prospect of regulation to ensure business access to cash services.

In a written communication to an inquiry on cash by Sweden’s Ministry of Finance, the central bank stated: ‘regulation is needed to ensure that operators, who are legally obliged to accept cash, have access to functioning services for daily takings and petty cash.’

Sweden is famed as the world’s first near-cashless society, and banks have largely stopped providing cash services to businesses. Instead, functional services for daily takings and petty cash are currently offered almost exclusively by the CIT company Loomis and entirely on a commercial basis. In the Riksbank’s opinion, banks need to take greater responsibility to ensure long-term access to services, which provide a backstop in the event of a breakdown in digital payment systems.

There is already a legal requirement for some banks to ensure that companies and public authorities can deposit daily takings to an adequate extent. According to the Riksbank, the legal requirement needs to be tightened and clarified as the services offered by the banks are ‘inadequate’.