Banks on the Run: Cash as a Forgotten Essential Service

While Singapore guarantees access to cash for its elderly with ATMs in every neighborhood, our cities witness banks closing branches and eliminating withdrawal points in vulnerable areas. Profitability takes precedence over inclusion, and those who depend on physical money are left out of the financial system.

Photorealistic scene showing an elderly woman standing alone in a neglected urban street, holding a single banknote in her hand, facing a locked bank branch with a CLOSED PERMANENTLY sign on the glass door, while in the background a modern ATM machine displays an OUT OF SERVICE error screen, empty sidewalks, cracked pavement, contrasting with a small inset visual of a clean Singaporean HDB block with a working ATM and elderly person withdrawing cash, cinematic lighting, grey overcast sky, dramatic shadows, technical urban infrastructure detail, photorealistic architectural render

Financial digitalization cannot be an excuse for exclusion 🏦

Online banking reduces costs, but eliminating ATMs in low-income neighborhoods or areas with a high elderly population breaks the balance. Technology must complement, not replace, physical access. A law mandating the maintenance of cash points in these areas, as an essential public service, would prevent the digital divide from becoming a financial divide. It's not about stopping innovation, but about ensuring no one is left behind.

What if we pay for groceries with an app we don't have? 📱

Because, of course, it's more profitable for the bank to close the ATM and leave you with an empty passbook. Then they tell you to use the app, but your grandmother still thinks the QR code is an alien hieroglyph. Meanwhile, executives celebrate digital efficiency with a 5-euro coffee. Good thing we can still pay in cash... if we find an ATM 20 kilometers away.