Eesti Pank, working with Swedbank and the police, practised how to turn a cashless bank office into one that handles cash and can start issuing it in order to be prepared for an event where payments are interrupted and there is a large spike in demand for cash.

Eesti Pank ran a crisis readiness exercise for cash on Wednesday at the Swedbank office in Viljandi that let the bank practise converting from a cashless office to one that handles cash. The Viljandi police provided security for the cash transport and the whole of the exercise.

Rait Roosve, Head of the Cash and Security Department of Eesti Pank, said that it is vital to be ready in this way for cases where electronic payments are unavailable for a longer period and people desperately need to be able to access cash.

Ede Raagmets, Head Of Customer Service at Swedbank, said “such exercises give us an excellent chance to practise resolving different scenarios successfully and to test how the processes agreed in advance actually work in practice and in cooperation between different parties. This gives us the confidence that all parties can quickly reorganise their work if needed and we can provide our clients with the key services they need even in unforeseen circumstances”.

Taavi Hüva of the Viljandi police said “it is the job of the police to ensure the safety of the shipment and the vehicles transporting it. It is important that everyone in traffic is paying attention and keeps their eyes and ears open, and the if they hear a vehicle with a siren that they clear the road for it”.

This was a planned exercise and there was no actual emergency. Cash is circulating normally in Estonia.

Additional information:
Viljar Rääsk
Head of Communications
Eesti Pank
6680 745, 5275 055
Email: [email protected]
*Press enquiries: [email protected]