Australian Bank Freezes Customer's Account Following Cash Deposit
Aug 1, 2023
A professional poker player is warning fellow Australians that ‘banks want to make their customers go cashless and they’re willing to “coerce” them to do it’ after his account was frozen following a deposit he made in cash.
Australian multinational banking and financial services company Westpac blocked Crispin Rovere’s account after he paid in cash winnings described by Sky News Host Amanda Stoker as ‘well below the amount at which it would become interesting for money laundering or anti-terrorism laws.’
[What disturbs me is] the marginalisation and criminalisation of cash itself—the banks want to make you go cashless and are willing to ‘coerce’ you in order to do that, but also the tactic of freezing your accounts merely for using cash, a legal tender, putting people in extremely vulnerable positions.
To unblock the account, Rovere was required to make an in-person visit to a Westpac branch ‘to ask personal questions to which they were not entitled.’ The reason provided by Westpac for their actions were that the deposit had been made in a different state than the one in which the account was set up. He points out that all his transactions within that month had taken place within the area in which the deposit was made, and the deposit was made using two-factor authentication.
In a written response to Rovere’s complaints about his treatment, Westpac stated ‘there has been a significant increase in fraud and scams over the last few years and the bank has robust measures in place to ensure customers are protected’. Rovere and Stoker were puzzled by how a deposit—rather than a withdrawal from the account—triggered these measures.
In a largely cashless society, banks have a lot of power over the ability of individuals to interact with the economy.
Rovere concludes that, given the necessity of having a bank account to interact with many aspects of the economy, in the absence of evidence showing fraudulent activity, banks should not be able to suspend accounts. Stoker added that ‘legal tender should operate on the presumption that it is—unless shown otherwise—legal.’
Commentors on the video are clear that ‘cash is king!’, voicing concerns about the power of the government and financial entities should cash no longer be available or usable. One said: ‘No one should have to accept a forced third party in all transactions’ while another warned ‘No cash for us = lots of control for the banks and authorities.’
