Commbank outage shows Australians need to carry cash

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Commonwealth Bank’s devastating computer system failure affecting Netbank, the Commbank

app, credit and debit cards and merchant payment systems demonstrates the extreme dangers of

a cashless society.

Commbank acknowledged a problem yesterday about lunchtime and the issue is not yet

completely resolved (at 9pm).

“Millions of Australians have been left stranded by Australia’s biggest bank’s failure to provide working card

payment services,” said Tim Wildash, Chief Executive Officer of leading independent ATM supplier, Next

Payments.

“On the first Monday of the new financial year, Commonwealth Bank has underlined the need for all

Australians to carry cash, just in case.

“If you don’t have cash in your pocket, you are at risk of being left stranded by bank system outages like

this,” said Tim Wildash.

“If retailers don’t carry cash and accept cash payments they can lose a day of takings.

“The Australian financial system and economy are weaker without ready availability of cash,” said Mr

Wildash.

“Cash is safe, reliable, private and has no hidden fees or merchant surcharges.

Reserve Bank of Australia documents released under Freedom of Information on the 3 June 2020 show the

RBA has investigated the issue of virus transmission and currency and concluded cash poses no significant

risk of carrying viruses. Debit and credit cards may carry many more germs than bank notes and coins

according to recent American research.

The Royal Australian Mint says there is no evidence linking cash to the transmission of COVID-19.

Cash is sanitised before being delivered by cash companies to venues and ATM operators.

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