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Too Much Privacy: Finnish Police Want Big Euro Notes Taken Out of Circulation

Posted by timothy on from the convenience-of-the-state dept.

jones_supa writes The Finnish Police are concerned that larger banknotes, namely the €200 and €500 banknotes, encourage criminal activity and should therefore be removed from Finnish cash circulation. Markku Ranta-aho, head of the Money Laundering Clearing House of Finland, says criminals prefer cash because it is harder for police to track. In contrast, a record of electronic money transfers remains in the banking system, which makes the police's job considerably easier. Ranta-aho also says citizens rarely use the larger banknotes anyway, with which The Bank of Finland's advisor Kari Takala agrees. However, The Bank of Finland is skeptical about the ability of a ban on €500 banknotes to eliminate underground labor and trade in Finland. Takala suggests criminals would just switch to smaller bills. More illegal transactions take place via bank transfers, he says.

3 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Re:To their defense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a normal person I don't use Raspberry Pi boards or metal lathes, either. There's no reason anybody should be allowed to have those, either.

  2. Re:To their defense by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Informative

    I normally have 4-6 500 Euro bills on me at any time and maybe 2 200 bills and a few hundreds and some change. It is much more convenient than having stacks of twenties or tens. I move from place to place, it's business related and I don't want to be in need of quick cash and have to run around searching for an ATM.

    The criminals will not have a problem with any of this, this will only inconvenience the rest of the people, just like everything that governments do.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  3. Re:Not only in Finland. by mythosaz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh man, I hope I'm there when you call the police, so when the police and the store laugh at you, I can join in.

    http://www.treasury.gov/resour...

    This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

    Hilarious indeed.