Major bank's shock move to scrap cash (2024)

Australia's fifth-largest bank has announced it will scrap cash and cheques in 2024.

Macquarie Bank will transition to fully digital payments with cash deposits and branch withdrawals to cease in November 2024.

From January, Macquarie customers will no longer be able to make payments over the phone. Cash and cheque contributions to banking and wealth management products including pension and super accounts will also stop.

From March next year, customers will not be able to make a payment using the automated telephone banking service currently provided by the bank.

And from May depositing or withdrawing cash or cheques over the counter at Macquarie branches will not be possible, nor will ordering a cheque book on an existing account.

The move to a cashless society has some concerned that older Australians and other groups who rely on cash may be disadvantaged.

Older Australians most affected by scams which often target digital banking practices. In a National Seniors survey, 1100 of 5000 respondents said they'd been scammed.

Aussies abandon cash

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, cash accounted for just 13 per cent of all payments made in 2022.

That number has reduced dramatically in recent years. Cash made up around 70 per cent of payments in 2007 and by 2016 it was still at 37 percent.

The pandemic had an impact on people's payment behaviour with a significant decline in cash use between 2019 and 2022.

Other factors have contributed to the decline of cash, including the increased popularity of contactless card payments, the rise of ride-share services and that most public transport services no longer accept cash.

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The share of frequent cash users in regional and remote areas has also decreased significantly, with the RBA reporting in 2022 that a little under 10 per cent of people in both major cities and regional or remote areas were frequent cash users.

Macquarie Bank is Australia's fifth largest bank with 1.7 million clients.