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Liz, what a lovely post. Thank you, and may your next big adventure be even better than the ride so far. See you on the other side!

We already live in a (mostly) cashless world. If you, like me, live and work in a developed country you are by all accounts already living in as cashless world and without noticing it, have been for quite a number of years now.  My own cash usage has dwindled to drawing a small amount from my local ATM (monthly now, though it used to bi-weekly a couple of years ago) just to cover those odd occasions when a card or other cashless instrument is either not acceptable or (heaven forbid) won’t work. Whether you can legislate cash away – well that is another story.  

Of course the consumer still has a choice…and that could be to take her or his cash elsewhere.

Absurd! Delegitimizing cash (in effect cancelling its status as legal tender) is a really bad move. If accepting cash, as the Danish government says puts a considerable financial and administrative burden on retailers, what sort of burden will be placed on consumers by forcing them to pay by alternative non-cash means? Will the Danish government confer legal tender status on alternative payment mechanisms like virtual currency, credit cards? What of poor tourists?

Sounds to me like a copout to big business to help them cut costs.

Cash and Card (Debit and Credit) will retain the joint crown for a while to come. Both are universal, entrenched and easy to use. Alternative payment methods all have a major drawback. There are far too many of them (meaning that they differ to one degree or another) and virtually all require an investment by the both parties in technology and training.

I have always been at a loss to understand this inability to achieve one-day or intraday transfers between banks for all payments. We introduced exactly this in South Africa through the ACH way back in the 1980s – 30 years ago! I suspect the whole problem is a lack of will by the banks who despite all the denials still eschew cooperation in the mistaken belief that this protects their perceived monopoly.

You have hit the nail on the head when you suggest inadequate testing. I want to add a couple of extra points as well – bad design (usually because both the business and the technical requirements are not properly understood) exacerbated by the need for indecent haste in launching, demanded by the product owners within the institution. The need for speed is a very explosive factor that often turns sour.

Dean Wallace’s ‘man flu’ experience is a great example of what can go wrong if you can’t get the multi channel approach right.  From what I am experiencing and hearing, very few banks are getting the whole picture right.

My wife’s recent experience is a case in point. Her new MasterCard arrived in the post, on one of those cardboard  holders. On the reverse were printed three ‘easy’ ways to validate the new card – either at the ATM or on the Internet or via the bank’s call centre. And then the trouble began. The ATM validation did not work. The internet validation was no good either (while we have joint account I am the only registered internet user) and the call centre had the same problem as the internet. So in the end she had to travel 50 kilometers to the branch to get the card validated. And what of a validation at a local branch of the bank? Well guess what? They weren’t allowed to do that.

Looks like it’s just a market pleasing move. Closing only 150 branches in 2015 out of 5,600 is not really significant. I wonder if the planned additional 150 branch closures for 2016 will be increased by this time next year.

Ketharaman, you are 100% correct. Banking is about relationships NOT only about technology. Technology helps but at the end of day it is really the interaction between the BANKER (not the banks sales rep) that bonds that relationship and creates a loyal client/ bank relationship. That is the problem with today’s banking. There are very few true bankers left (with knowledge of the big picture, honed from overall banking experience); only the so-called “specialists” who are not specialist at all. And the place for this interaction? Why, the bank branch of course.