Denmark has recorded its first year without bank robberies, as the use of cash has dwindled in recent years, the country’s finance workers’ union said.
The increasingly cashless society had led banks to reduce their cash services, the union said on Monday, leaving little potential loot for robbers.
“It’s nothing short of amazing. Because every time it happens, it’s an extreme strain on the employees involved,” said Steen Lund Olsen, the vice-president of the union, Finansforbundet.
“It’s something you can’t even begin to understand the emotional impact of if you haven’t experienced it yourself,” he added.
The union said there had been 221 bank robberies in 2000, a number that slowly decreased to less than 10 a year since 2017.
Denmark’s central bank reported in March last year that the use of cash had fallen from 23% of payments in 2017 to 12% in 2021.
The Covid pandemic accelerated the abandonment of cash, said the bank.
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The finance workers’ union noted that while holdups had become scarce, “many bank employees who have been robbed continue to struggle with the consequences”. Some still suffered from symptoms such as “anxiety, sadness, irritability, restlessness and insomnia”.