Forget the mattress! Keeping large sums of cash at home is risky. The best place to protect your money is in an FDIC-insured bank where it’s safe and sound. Learn how the FDIC safeguards your #money at https://t.co/O2cb1bTUJs pic.twitter.com/R8pFVxBPrM
— FDIC Gov (@FDICgov) March 24, 2020
The coronavirus indeed has caused massive fear and panic across the world. Places are locked down, and people hoard sanitizing materials like toilet tissue and alcohol just to keep themselves safe from the deadly virus. But it’s not just sanitizing materials that are hoarded; there also have been increased demands on paper money.
Banks are seeing more cash withdrawals as nervous customers try to protect themselves from the uncertainty of the coronavirus clampdown.
There are reports — especially from wealthy neighborhoods — of people pulling tens of thousands of dollars out of their bank accounts. Demand was so high that one bank branch in Midtown Manhattan temporarily ran out of $100 bills, The New York Times reported. The bank was quickly resupplied the following day.
An official from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), however, states that this is a risky thing to do.
“You don’t want to be walking around with large wads of cash, and you certainly don’t want to be hoarding cash in your mattress,” FDIC Chairman Jelena McWiliams states in the video above.
"Just as it is not necessarily rational to hoard toilet paper, it is also not rational to hoard cash," McWilliams said.
More details about this over at NPR.
Keep your money safe!
(Video Credit: FDIC Gov/ Twitter)