O dinheiro físico acabou?

Na Suíça parece ir nesse caminho - um fundo de pensões tentou levantar dinheiro depositado num banco suiço (a ideia era, para evitar os juros negativos, guardarem eles mesmos o dinheiro ou coisa parecida) e o banco recusou-se a lhes dar dinheiro físico (notas ou moedas) - o levantamento só é possível via cheque ou transferência eletrónica (o que parece querer dizer que a única maneira de tirar o dinheiro desse banco é passá-lo para outro banco).

The Swiss Have Eliminated The Zero Lower Bound, por Frances Coppola (Forbes):

Via Zero Hedge comes this report from a Swiss website, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). It seems that a Swiss pension fund tried to evade negative rates on deposits by withdrawing a very large amount of physical cash with the intention of vaulting it. But the bank refused to allow it to withdraw the money in the form of physical cash.

Not surprisingly, representatives of pension funds are angry at the bank’s behavior (...)

According to SRF, the Swiss National Bank is encouraging banks to restrict withdrawals of physical cash:

The Swiss National Bank confirms that hoarding cash to circumvent negative interest rates is not welcome. “The National Bank has been recommending that banks with cash demands (…) act restrictively.”

(...) So was the bank breaking the law in refusing to allow the fund to withdraw its money in the form of physical cash? Zero Hedge says it was:

Note here that it is indeed breaking the law, as there is nothing in Swiss legislation that states that banks are allowed to refuse or delay servicing withdrawals from demand deposits upon request.

But hang on. The bank did not refuse or delay servicing a withdrawal from a demand deposit. All it did was restrict the form in which the withdrawal could be made. The pension fund was still able to withdraw money by electronic transfer or by check. It was simply unable to receive physical cash.

Of course, those who think that the only real money is the green paper in your wallet (or better, shiny yellow metal) will no doubt claim that refusal to allow deposits to be converted into physical cash is a denial of fundamental property rights. But the legal position on this is opaque to say the least.

Ainda sobre este assunto, este post de John Cochrane sobre as dificuldades e desvantagens de acabar com o dinheiro físico para poder ter juros negativos.