The war on cash and cheques at Australian banks is about to intensify with two of the country’s leading deposit takers – Macquarie and CBA - flagging new measures to manoeuvre customers away from analogue methods of banking.
Macquarie Bank this week began notifying holders of its transaction accounts that it will cease accepting cheques and cash deposits next year as part of a strategic transition to becoming a pure digital banking platform.
The move came as CBA slapped massive fee increases on business customers attempting to deposit cash and cheques at branches.
Macquarie, which claims to have 1.2 million depositors, currently accepts cash deposits and cheques made in person by transaction account holders at three branches in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
The bank also accepts cheques posted to its Sydney processing centre.
Macquarie’s ban on cash and cheques is expected to take full effect by November 2024.
“Between January and November 2024, we’ll be phasing out our cash and cheque services across all our banking and wealth management products, including super and pension accounts,” Macquarie said in the notification to customers.
“We’ll also be switching off our automated telephone banking service used to make payments over the phone.”
Macquarie currently has a banking partnership with the National Australia Bank that allows Macquarie customers to make cash withdrawals and deposits at NAB branches. That service will end in November 2024.
A Macquarie spokesperson said the bank was committed to becoming a digital-only provider to ensure customers have “a safer, faster and convenient way to bank”.
“The majority of our customers already bank digitally and we’re working very closely to support the less than one per cent of our customers who currently use cheques or cash to ensure they have access to other digital payment methods,” the spokesperson said.
While the country’s largest bank, CBA, has not yet announced a blunt program to prohibit cash and cheques as deposit methods at its branches, it has begun notifying business customers they will soon incur materially higher fees if these methods are used to make deposits.
In an email sent to business transaction account holders on Tuesday, CBA revealed that from 1 October it will hike fees for deposits made over the counter at branches and Australia Post outlets by 66 per cent to A$5.
The fee for accepting cheques deposited at branches will also rise 66 per cent from $3 to $5.
The bank is also inflating the cost of using its popular bulk cash and cheques deposit service for business customers – known as QuickCash Bags.
The cost of using this service will rise more than threefold to $10 per transaction.
CBA currently charges $3 for a QuickCash Bags transaction.
Despite the hefty fee increases, the bank tried to reassure business customers in the email that it would continue to provide cash-handling services.
“We know some of your customers will always prefer paying in cash, and we’ll continue to support you with cash services,” CBA told business clients in the email.
In a rather drastic development, the bank also revealed that it was slashing the number of fee-free transactions available each month to business customers.
CBA currently allows business customers 20 free transactions a month in return for a flat $10 fee.
From the start of October the bank will give its business customers only five free transactions under the $10 fee arrangement.
That represents a material degradation of the service offer.