by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
Under guise of preventing fraud the ECB voted to kill the €500 note.
Fraud was not the real reason. The real reason was to make it more difficult for banks to store physical cash to avoid negative interest penalties.
Cash Under the Mattress
[…] Please consider Banks Seek Cheap Way to Store Cash Piles as Rates Go Negative.
The idea of keeping piles of cash in high security vaults may sound like something from an old movie plot, but some banks and insurers have recently started considering the idea as interest rates sink below zero across much of Europe.