By today, it will be impossible to draw cash from the bank offices of Nordea in Norway. All the operations are going to be processed digitally. The bank no longer sees the need in handling cash over the counter.
Annie Dahl, bank manager at Nordea in Oslo S, comments to NRK: “Customers do the majority of operations via online and mobile banking. Nordea also has ATMs where people can take out cash and foreign currency. In addition, this decision reduces the risk of robbery”.
The number of cash payments has been gradually reduced since 2001. Now only 5,3 % of the payments are made with cash in Norway, while in 2001 this number was 11%, according to the figures from Norwegian Central Bank (Norges Bank).
Customers are surprised by complete switch to the online banking. Many of them, especially elderly people, do not feel secure with credit cards and prefer to have cash.
Meanwhile, other Norwegian banks are also on the way to cutting out cash. It is just a matter of time. DnB has cash handling only in its branch at Gardermoen airport. Sparebank1 uses cash in a branch in Youngstorget. As well as some smaller banks still have cash handling in their branches.