How Denmark Put an Finish to Financial institution Robberies

Last yr, there was not a single financial institution theft in Denmark, in accordance with knowledge launched Tuesday by an trade group for lenders. The information comes on the again of declining money companies, fueled by an increase in on-line and cell transactions, and beefed up safety.

Steen Lund Olsen, a spokesman for Finansforbundet, Denmark’s Finance Federation, celebrated the 2022 milestone and described the sudden phenomenon as “simply wonderful.” Olsen mentioned financial institution robberies “put a fully excessive pressure on the affected workers each time (they) occurred.” He added: “It’s one thing you may’t even start to know the emotional affect of if you happen to haven’t skilled it your self.”

The banking affiliation famous that solely 20 of round 800 nationwide financial institution branches now have money holdings, a determine that has consistently fallen through the years—from 219 in 1991 to 56 in 2021. As such, the variety of financial institution hold-ups have fallen in tandem with the decline in money circulation, with 221 financial institution robberies recorded in 2000, 121 situations in 2004, to only a single incident in 2021.

Denmark’s central financial institution reported in March that money use had virtually halved from 2017 to 2021—a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic that catalyzed cashless operations.

As a world shift towards on-line transactions takes place, different nations are additionally noticing a decline in financial institution robberies, with American banks recording 1,724 robberies in 2021, falling from 7,556 in 2004.

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However whereas Denmark’s financial institution assaults could also be a factor of the previous, robbers have modernized their method. Initially, they targeted on ATM scams—however these crimes peaked at 18 situations in 2016, as a result of improved surveillance and safety—earlier than they turned to digital fraud.

In 2019, Denmark recorded a rise in on-line scams leveraged in opposition to older Danish citizens aged between 65 to 74. Practically 10% of individuals on this age bracket misplaced cash after falling sufferer to phishing emails and fraudulent web sites, in accordance with The Native, Denmark’s main English-language on-line newspaper.

Citing a survey performed by Statistics Denmark, The Native additionally famous that fifty% of web customers in Denmark, no matter age, reported that that they had skilled on-line safety issues lately; a determine that has possible solely worsened within the years because the pandemic unfolded.

Write to Armani Syed at armani.syed@time.com.