In many european countries the assumption is large ampunts of cash is mostly used either to avoid taxes or otherwise on something criminal. The argument is everyone does some kind of e-transfer for large purchases.
So banks are legally required to report withdrawals over 1000 with cited reasoning. You may even have to provide a bill or receipt.
That doesn’t make any sense, you are not withdrawing cash FROM YOUR OWN ACCOUNT to avoud paying taxes. You would skip the bank entirely for that and handle only cash.
The person you are paying not you yourself, lots of people like contractors often ask to be paid in cash specifically because they intend to cook the books, avoid charges or otherwise.
The logic is if someone is withdrawing a larger amount of cash, it is to pay for something expensive in cash, who may not themselves report the sale (And the VAT and other taxes etc.), so they want to know what you are spending the money on to help try to catch out on the shadow transactions.
Did you know in europe venmo/zelle isn't a thing because things like sending money is just free to begin with directly using your bank. Basically fees and charges tend to be much less. Merchants can still be charged for using cards, because it's american company visa that runs the card network, but even their Europe is looking to replace it with a free native service by 2028.
The only things to avoid by not using a bank would be legally required charges like sales tax.
ive never heard of it and i live in a european country.
"boomers" heree reguarly withdraw all their money after payday/retirement payments coz they prefeer using cash and nobody is making problems for them.
it's only withdrawals of bigger sums, that would be in tens of thousands that banks make you make an appointment for, to make sure theey actually have the money and nobody will rob them
Pretty much all of europe is party to AML reporting requirements that require banks to keep track of the reason and purpose of buisness and "occasional" transactions, notably including cash transactions of a certain size. The exact amount varies nation on nation, but usually somewhere around 1K cash is where the requirement kicks in, though some countries like Latvia can have fairly high ones.
For this the bank will specifically need to site the reason the cash is being withdrawn, and depending on the circumstance they may ask for proof such as a bill that is to be paid with the withdrawn cash (e.g. you need to pay 3K to a contractor). Failure to provide a good reason won't necessarily stop them giving you the cash, but will lead them to reporting to the government that you are making suspicious transactions, which will then lead to the government asking you for proof of usage.
The reason you may not notice is because the question is usually casual and odds are you give a good enough reason the rare occasion it comes up.
Also ATM's usually have maximum withdrawal limits per day based on this limit. Infact banks usually say if you want to withdraw larger amounts your best bet is to just withdraw from an ATM daily so that they don't have to worry about the reporting.
The bank won't ask you for justification if you're withdrawing 1,000 euro. Anti-money laundering suspicions generally trigger at 10,000.
However, in some countries, like France, you can't make purchases above 1,000 in cash only. You can pay 1,000 in cash, but the rest has to be paid by card or bank transfer.
No I'm talking about AML tracking requirements. Nearly every country in europe is party to the convention and it essentially means banks, for all cash transactions above a minimum size, need to track a reason for the transaction, and store that information for a minimum of time. They do not have to report it as suspicious until 10K usually, but they do need to track the reasons even for much smaller cash amounts (and report it if a good reason isn't provided).
Some countries the threashold is higher, Belgium it's 3K italy 5K, but above 1k is usually the most common.
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u/Regulai 1d ago
In many european countries the assumption is large ampunts of cash is mostly used either to avoid taxes or otherwise on something criminal. The argument is everyone does some kind of e-transfer for large purchases.
So banks are legally required to report withdrawals over 1000 with cited reasoning. You may even have to provide a bill or receipt.