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German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

bloomberg.com

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Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#291

Post by majewsky »

nemetroid wrote: post #194
kgwgk wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean SEPA instant credit transfers I think they are available only in some countries and they are not free in my experience.

It depends on the country. Within the EU, SEPA transfers must be no more expensive than the equivalent domestic payment. At least in Sweden, this means that SEPA transfers are free. This rule is new though, it went into effect in December: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE... > Charges levied by a payment service provider on a payment service user in respect of cross-border payments in euro…

FWIW, I did a SEPA instant payment last Thursday between German checking accounts. I was billed 0.24€ by my bank.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#292

Post by imtringued »

rossdavidh wrote: post #254
Fishysoup wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is obsessed with keeping the value of the Euro low to maximize their exports. That's one of the reasons they've been pushing austerity after the economic crisis, as keeping countries like Greece, Portugal etc. in a rut depreciates the currency (the other reason is a weird sense that countries in debt have committed some moral failing and should be punished). Their trade surplus has been a subject of intense c…

In Germany's defense, they never asked for the Euro, it was more or less forced on them as the price for France not pitching a fit about German reunification. Essentially, the rest of the Eurozone is running on Deutschmarks, and calling it the "Euro" instead of the "Deutschmark" is just a face-saving measure. Germany, unlike most other countries in the Eurozone, could announce tomorrow that they were leaving the Euro…

The problem in italy is deeper than just the euro. The euro is just one of many factors but it has a higher visibility because it is beyond the control of a single country. Italy can only blame itself for all the other problems. This also applies to other countries in the eurozone.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#293

Post by majewsky »

scawf wrote: post #290
kjaftaedi wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country bank to bank transfers are free and instant. It's extremely convenient to be able to pay anyone any amount at any time with nothing more than your phone.

Sounds like a good way to get mugged with violence.. "Transfer me all of your bank account, right now !!" (To an account opened using fake ids of course)

People with fake IDs are not going to engage in mugging. If you plan out your crimes so much that you have fake IDs ready, it's way safer and more profitable to do some scamming or fraud scheme instead.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#294

Post by majewsky »

Daniel_sk wrote: post #136
MrRadar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why couldn't you use a cashier's check?

I have never seen a check in my life :-) (EU), they are not used or supported (maybe in some special cases, but 99% of people never used a check here). Larger sums are always paid with bank-wire transfer which is free and usually fast (instant or 24 hour), smaller payments are done with debit (or credit) cards, and then small payments can be done with cash.

When I was a teenager, my mother was playing a lottery that sent out winnings as checks through the mail. She always gave those to me to cash in because I was the only one in the family who had a checking account at the local bank. Her bank did not have branch offices, so it was literally impossible for her to cash the check.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#295

Post by 1337biz »

dcolkitt wrote: post #270
n0mad01 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the real reason why the 500 euro bill has been revoked was that for storing physical money (for banks, in those quantities) would become more expensive in order for the ECB to lower the interest/deposit rate. next thing will be 200 euro bills revoked, then the base rate can go down to around -1%.

I mean, there's an easier way to set a negative interest rate on cash. Periodically select X% of the circulating serial numbers and declare that they're no longer valid currency. In effect this makes X% of cash "burn off" every period, and allows the monetary authority to set any negative effective interest rate that they want. This is by no means an endorsement of negative rates. But if you're going to go down that…

This is too obvious. With the "only criminals use it" argument you have a much easier time convincing people how great the idea is.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#296

Post by lotsofpulp »

Frost1x wrote: post #208
reaperducer wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to think of places that would want to accept $500 to $1000 notes when many places won't even accept a $50 or $100 and consider them "large bills." Landlords, for one. I'm in the process of leasing a new apartment and I am required to pay some of the fees with a debit card, and some with a cashier's check. It would be easier to just hand them a few large bills and be done with it. Cash is dying and although…

Landlords typically don't accept cash for a variety of reasons. One is fraud but the other main issue is security for holding/transferring that cash and fact they have predictable schedules they'd have cash on hand. I estimate the building I'm renting from right now would have anywhere between $650-750k or more revenue per month, most of which probably arrives in a one week or less window. That makes them a target fo…

As a landlord, I would want a paper trail of all payments and interactions with a tenant due to the numerous landlord-tenant laws.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#297

Post by 1337biz »

hirsin wrote: post #238
1337biz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I am no expert but let me play the futurist here. After they killed the 200 Euro note it is going to be the 100 Euro note that is going to be used by those damn criminals! It is in essence part of the same eradicating rights movement that is fighting against anonymity in the internet. "Hey look, there are some criminals benefiting from it so let's kill it."

There are valid reasons to have anonymity on the internet - plenty of them. It's really hard for me to grok the intrinsic value and human right of carrying a 200 note instead of two hundreds. If I'm gift giving, maybe, but frankly I can't stand getting hundreds as gifts, they're a pain to spend and just cause more work for me.

I am against giving up any rights of individual freedom whatever so small the real value thereof is. I see it as a matter of gradually eroding the right of anonymous transaction/cash from the top and the bottom. They went after the 500 Euro bill and currently are on the way to kill the 1 and 2 cent coins. In 5 years they will go after the 200 Euro bill and so on.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#298

Post by throwawaylolx »

luckylion wrote: post #286
mamon wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not confuses, just gives fuller picture - the whole deal between old and new EU members was: open up your markets, and we'll give you access to our "cohesion funds" from EU budget. Now you can see who won and who lost on this deal.

Again, it's taxes vs private money. And "the whole deal" really was about a politically unified Europe, the "purely economic union" wasn't a thing anymore when the east expansion happened. That certainly was parts of it, but let's not create alternative history. Besides, "lost and won" is terribly weird when you just look at money flows but exclude goods. Hey, sell me your $30k car for $1000, you'll be the winner, be…

>Again, it's taxes vs private money.

That's the entire point of the article, the author is not "confusing" them:

>The talks cannot just be about public money, and should not become a brawl between "net contributors" and "net beneficiaries."

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#299

Post by boublepop »

dickjocke wrote: post #229
Angostura wrote: post #46

I don't see why Germany doesn't handle it the same way as the Bank of England where the chief cashier signs special notes called 'Giants' worth £1,000,000 and 'Titans' worth £100,000,000. These are obviously only used for inter-bank transactions.

Why do they need paper money anyway? Is there something more legitimate about a piece of paper with many 0s on it vs redundant electronic storage of record?

They don’t need the pile of cash, and are free to burn it if they want and just write down in an excel sheet: “today we burned 2 billion euros”, now the question is if you’re willing to have your salary paid out in a digital recognition that you now own a part of that burnt cash, because you feel comfortable that others would allow you to pay using those IOU’s of no longer existing cash.

If not, then the current system where the digital records refer to actual cash still needs there to be actual cash somewhere. Normally you’d have it in the national bank, but since they started charging it’s better to stockpile paper.

Re: German banks are hoarding so many euros they need more vaults

#300

Post by Scoundreller »

throwawaycanada wrote: post #262
Scoundreller wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have large piles of money to launder, one way is to build a rental property and pay all the materials/contractors in cash. But now harder to do that with 5x the bills. Or suddenly stuck with 500s that nobody wants to take.

Wait... how do you explain the appearance of the building with no expenses shown except "from cash"?

At least in Canada, the city cares about building permits, but doesn’t do any checking on how the building/construction was paid for.

Banks don’t really question rent cheque’s coming in every month, or a large bank transfer coming from your lawyer for the sale of property.

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