Ian Woolford: Reserve Bank Money and Cash Director on the RBNZ trialling a community cash depot project

The Reserve Bank is addressing concerns cash is becoming inaccessible by bringing money to rural communities.  

It has opened a 12-month trial of a cash depot in Hawke's Bays' Waipukurau - offering a closer site to make withdrawals.

Local banks have recently closed, meaning the nearest ATM for locals is 50 kilometres away.

Reserve Bank Money and Cash Director, Ian Woolford, says, currently, only businesses can use the depot for cash.

"It's quite surprising, about a third of where people get their money from is actually from a retailer...but people might be noticing retailers are increasingly saying - well, we don't really want to accept cash."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Reserve Bank is a little bit worried that
we might start finding it a little hard to find cash,
you know, with the old ATMs disappearing in the banks
pulling out of rural areas. So it's got a plan.
It's opened a cash depot for people in why Poka,
Oh just to see how it goes. It's part of
a twelve month trial. Up to now, these people had
to drive fifty k's just to withdraw cash. Ian Wolford
is the Reserve Bank's Director of Money and Cash and

(00:21):
with us now hi Ian hi okay. So this cash depot,
how does it work? Is it basically you guys running
your own minibank.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Sort of, although it's really just about the cash. We're
not giving out loans or anything like that. But what
it does is it lets retailers come in and they'll
be able to deposit money they can make change. This
is one of the issues that retailers have rights banks
withdrawal from rural areas, actually having the float, being able

(00:51):
to deposit the money, all those sorts of things. So
we're trying to find solutions for that to make it
easier for retailers.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Right, But what about the average punter because this is
only this is only for businesses and boards of trustees
at schools and so on and so forth. What about
if you just have a punter who wants to withdraw
I don't know, three hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, So at the moment, we focus on retailers, and
I'll tell you why. It's because it's quite surprising about
a third of where people get their money from is
actually from a retailer and cash out. But what's happening
people might be noticing retailers are increasingly saying, well, we
don't really want it set cash because it's getting too
expensive for us to handle, and it's just a bit

(01:29):
too difficult because the ATMs and the branches are disappearing.
So what we're trialing is if we make it easier
for retailers to get changed so they can deposit, they
can get the float, etc. And this isn't quite live yet,
but it's about to go live. It's part of the trial,
and we actually reimburse the retailer for giving some cash out.

(01:50):
Does that actually change people's behaviors? So that helps ungum
the system. You know, you can you've still got the
choice of using cash when you want to. So at
the moment it's just the retailer cash depot. But in
the future, you know, we're exploring all options.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Interesting. Thanks very much for talking us through it, Ian
Wilford Reserve Bank, Director of Money in Cash.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
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