Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Bitcoin and The Blockchain - Banks Must Embrace Or “Die”

Editors Note:

GoldCore believe that blockchain technology will revolutionize the world of finance, payments and money and may have an impact on the world on a scale of that of the internet. Hence, the need to keep an eye on this very important evolving technology that has ramifications for us all.

If you thought the internet was disruptive, well you ain't seen nothing yet ... the blockchain cometh!

Charlie Morris is the editor of Atlas Pulse - a newsletter focusing on gold, bitcoin, blockchain and disruptive technology.. He has written an excellent article looking at bitcoin, the blockchain and the ramifications for banks and our financial system.

Symbols for Gold, Bitcoin and Silver - Atlas Pulse

by Charlie Morris

Bitcoin’s had one hell of a year.

The price of a single bitcoin recently touched $500, which is three times higher than it was in August this year. That’s one hell of a move in a short space of time and I’m going to try and put that into context.

In November 2013, there were just over 12 million bitcoins in circulation and the price touched $1,200, meaning the network was briefly worth $14.4bn. This new form of electronic money had high hopes and some felt it would genuinely catch on as it had the potential to challenge the existing system in global payments.

Bitcoin clearly got ahead of itself and the excitement about the future of money took a turn for the worse.

There were scandals such as the loss of bitcoins at the MT Gox exchange (a bitcoin trading platform), the closure of the Silk Road website (drugs and other bad things) and the banning of bitcoin wallets by Apple (users could no longer transact on their phones).

The lowest ebb came in January this year when the network value briefly dropped below $ bn, a 77% contraction. Many high profile commentators wrote off bitcoin and predicted a future value below $1.

Today the bitcoin network appears to be alive and well. It recently saw total daily transaction volumes rise above $300m. This growth in usage from $50m per day in the summer has caused the price to surge. At $500 per bitcoin, the network value recently touched $7.4bn.

This resurgence is all the more surprising because there have been so many barriers in its path. Regulators have put bitcoin businesses under heavy scrutiny and most banks have refused to deal with them, despite being legitimate and innovative enterprises. In fact, George Osborne showed public support for bitcoin and wants Britain to be a hub for these disruptive technologies.

Before we go into further detail, let’s take a step back and remind ourselves what bitcoin actually is.

In simple terms, bitcoin is electronic cash. It was created on the Internet by ‘miners’ and can be transacted with anyone else who has a bitcoin ‘wallet’. It can’t be copied, cut or pasted, nor can they be minted to infinity.

As I said, there are 14.8 million bitcoins in circulation, and each day approximately 4,000 new coins are created. In exchange for validating all of the transactions carried out by the community, the miners receive the new coins plus some transaction fees. Yesterday’s payout to the miners was roughly $2m. Yes, you read that correctly.

Given the vast rewards, this process is highly competitive and if you want to mine bitcoins, you’ll need a super computer bigger than GCHQ’s and Nasa’s combined; I’m not exaggerating.

The miners work hard for their money and their primary task is to validate a ‘block’ of transactions every ten minutes (or by my calculations, every 9 minutes and 41 seconds on average). In financial terms, they carry out the ‘settlement’ for bitcoin and perform record keeping functions.

There are roughly 153 blocks created each and every day. They stack up on top of each other and, since bitcoin’s birth on 3rd January 2009, this process has occurred over 382,000 times. Hence the phrase ‘blockchain’ as the transaction data is stored as a ‘chain of blocks’.

The true genius of bitcoin is that it has been built using a database that was designed to transact, whereas a traditional database was designed to store information.

Financial transactions use traditional databases that were invented decades ago. In order for them to transact, they dive inside the computer, find the data they are looking for, change it and then climb back out. That system has worked well, but now the world has something better.

With a blockchain, instead of finding and changing the data, the system continuously adds new layers whilst the past records remain unchanged. This has improved speed, security, transparency and record keeping whilst simultaneously slashing costs.

Crucially, the bitcoin ecosystem is operated by the ‘invisible hand’. There are no employees or maintenance staff behind it. Ask a bank how many people sit in their IT department and the answer will be in the tens of thousands. Bitcoin has survived for nearly seven years with no employees whatsoever, just an open-source community of coders who implement periodic improvements.

Crucially, the bitcoin network is ‘de-centralised’. A bank may backup its database several times, but for bitcoin, there are 5,625 copies (at the last count), known as ‘nodes’. In order to shut down bitcoin, you would need to destroy every single one. That would mean a coordinated effort from 90 different countries including Zimbabwe, Russia and Iran. Good luck with that; the bitcoin network is here to stay.

What can you do with bitcoin?

You can spend it in a growing list of places although, I readily admit, it is far from mainstream. As I said on my recent podcast, I managed to buy a glass of wine in Chamonix and a cup of coffee in Shoreditch, but little else.

That has hardly changed the face of money, but entrepreneurs have created credit cards that transact using bitcoin. That means it is potentially acceptable whenever you see the Visa or Mastercard symbol.

Wall Street has seen this blockchain technology and has taken it into the fold. The banks that intend to survive know that if they don’t take the lead, they’ll die. Those that fail to take an interest will get left behind and so there’s much at stake.

The recent surge in price from $160 in August to $500 was an explosive move. The FT has attributed this to a Russian pyramid scheme called MMM, that has taken off in China. I’m sure this explains much of the recent exuberance, but underlying that, is a self-sustaining network that enjoys underlying growth.

Speculative flurries will come and go but what I am interested in is the trend. If the real usage of bitcoin grows, the price can only rise. We should think of bitcoin like a technology stock where the value is directly related to the size of the network.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-18/bitcoin-and-blockchain-banks-must-embrace-or-%E2%80%9Cdie%E2%80%9D

BREAKING: Barclays Hit With Additional $150M NY Forex Fine

Barclays has been hit with a $150m penalty for allegedly using its foreign exchange electronic trading platform to automatically reject client orders that would have been unprofitable for the bank, and lying to those clients about why their transactions were turned down.

The New York Department of Financial Services also ordered Barclays to fire the global head of electronic fixed income, currencies, and commodities automated flow trading as part of a settlement announced Wednesday, Gina Chon reports in Washington.

The findings are another embarrassment for Barclays, which has already paid the largest fine, $2.4bn in May, out of the multiple Wall Street firms that have been investigated for manipulation of the $5.3tn forex markets.

Wednesday's settlement brings the total Barclays has paid to DFS alone for forex probes to $635m.

The Barclays probe also doesn't bode well for other banks facing similar investigations by DFS for their forex electronic trading platforms, such as Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Société Générale.

US regulators have also been increasingly targeting automated and high frequency trading, and the Barclays settlement reflects one of the first major cases involving algorithms for an electronic trading platform.

"We are pleased that Barclays worked with us to resolve this matter," said Anthony Albanese, acting superintendent of DFS. "This case highlights the need for greater oversight and action to help prevent the misuse of automated, electronic trading platforms on Wall Street, which is a wider industry issue that requires serious additional scrutiny."

In a statement, Barclays said it continues to co-operate with other ongoing investigations and to manage related litigation risks as previously disclosed.

http://www.ft.com/intl/fastft/427451/barclays-dfs

IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE ON THE BARX PLATFORM OR HAVE LOST MONEY WITH BARCLAYS FX PLEASE CONTACT ELITE E SERVICES HERE

Thursday, November 12, 2015

EES: Why preppers have it all wrong

Prepping has not only gone mainstream, it's infected even the billionaire culture as referenced recently on a ZH article:

why-preppers-have-it-all-wrong

Monday, November 9, 2015

Banks’ Civil Forex Settlements Near $2 Billion

The total amount paid by banks to settle a civil lawsuit tied to allegations traders manipulated the currency market has now reached almost $2 billion following a recent round of settlement agreements.

HSBC Holdings PLC, Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas SA and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have recently signed agreements to settle the case, according to people familiar with the matter.

HSBC agreed to pay $285 million and Barclays $375 million, some of the people said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Goldman Sachs Group was in advanced settlement discussions for $129.5 million. It was unclear how much BNP has agreed to pay.

The four banks are among a dozen lenders named as defendants in the suit filed in late 2013 by law firms Scott+Scott LLP and Hausfeld LLP on behalf of a group of claimants including several U.S. state pension funds, which alleged bank traders improperly shared confidential information about their clients’ orders through electronic chat rooms to unfairly manipulate the $5.3 trillion currency market.

Five other banks reached settlements with the claimants earlier this year totaling roughly $1 billion, according to public statements from the banks and law firms involved in the case.

The civil settlements follow $10 billion in bank fines after a yearslong investigation into the foreign-exchange market by many global regulators including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority. While regulatory settlements in the U.K. last November and in the U.S. in May largely closed the book on the official investigation, problems related to the currency market continue to rumble on. Banks are likely to face similar civil claims in other jurisdictions such as London, where both plaintiff firms have an office, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Plaintiffs accused the banks’ traders of conspiring in instant messages and chat rooms with names such as “the Cartel,” and “the Dream Team” to manipulate foreign-exchange markets. “[Banks] participated in an unlawful conspiracy to restrain trade,” the filing said.

Three of the banks—Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse AG, and Morgan Stanley—have still not agreed a civil settlement, according to people familiar with the matter.

None of the banks that have settled the suit have admitted to any wrongdoing, according to settlement agreements seen by the Journal.

The civil suit is pending in New York. U.S. district court judge Lorna G. Schofield is due to talk with lawyers and some of the defendants on Thursday, according to court filings.

A person familiar with the civil case said negotiations with other banks accelerated after J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in January became the first bank to agree to a settlement. The U.S. bank agreed to pay out $99.5 million and disclose to the plaintiffs’ lawyers documentation it had already shared with U.S. and European regulators and trading data related to the alleged manipulation, according to documents reviewed by the Journal.

The agreements signed by other banks include similar clauses, according to people familiar with the matter.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-civil-forex-settlements-near-2-billion-1434541324

OPEN A FOREX ACCOUNT

Venezuela Default Countdown Begins: After Selling Billions In Gold, Caracas Raids $467 Million In IMF Reserves

In late October, when describing Venezuela's desperate steps to keep itself afloat for a few more months, we reported that in order to fund $3.5 billion bond payments in early November, Maduro's government had engaged in something that is the very definition of insanity: selling the country's sovereign (and pateiently repatriated by his deceased predecessor) gold to repay creditors.

Specifically, in the past several months, Caracas has quietly parted with 19% of its gold holdings: "Central bank financial statements posted this week on its website show monetary gold totaled 91.41 billion bolivars in January and 74.14 billion bolivars in May. At the strongest official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars per U.S. dollar, which the bank uses for its financial statements, that decline would be equivalent to $2.74 billion."

But while ridiculous, Venezuela's decision to liquidate some of its gold is perhaps understandable under the circumstances: Venezulea relies on crude oil for 95% of its export revenue, and with prices refusing to rebound, the only question is when do all those CDS which price in a Venezuela default finally get paid.

What is even more understandable is what Venezuela should have done in the first place before dumping a fifth of its gold, but got to do eventually, namely raiding all of the IMF capital held under its name in a special SDR reserve account.

Recall that this is precisely what Greece did in July when everyone was speculating when it would default. Now its Venezuela's turn.

The details: Reuters reports that Venezuela withdrew some $467 million from an IMF holding account in October, according to information posted on the fund's web-site, as the OPEC nation seeks to improve the liquidity of its reserves amid low oil prices and a severe recession.

Venezuela holds part of its reserves with the International Monetary Fund in an instrument called Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a basket of international currencies made up of the euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling and U.S. dollar.

The withdrawal will allow Venezuela to use the funds for imports or debt service, but does not change its total reserve holdings as SDRs are already accounted for.

Needless to say, it is far wiser to use up all paper "assets" to repay "paper" liabilities, before resorting to hart money. By then, it is usually game over anyway, so our advise to Mr. Maduro: just default now, and save your gold.

Referentially, the country's international reserves as of Thursday stood at $14.819 billion: and dropping fast. At this rate of depletion, we give Venezuela a few more months before the army takes over.

Finally, the central bank's most recent financial statements as of May, showed that 58% of reserves were held in gold. It is unclear how much, if any, were held in "toilet paper".

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-09/venezuela-default-countdown-begins-after-selling-billions-gold-caracas-raids-467-mil

This post sponsored by Elite E Services Forex

Shares Of World's Largest Miner Plunge To Seven-Year Low After Massive Toxic Mudslide Engulfs Brazilian Village

Ok, so if you’re the world’s largest mining company, one thing you don’t want is a global deflationary supply glut brought on by depressed demand from China and a worldwide excess capacity problem.

Another thing you don’t want is for a tailings dam to burst, sending a river of toxic mud into a nearby village in South America.

Well, BHP Billiton is now dealing with both of those issues and the market is punishing the stock, which hit a seven-year low on Monday as analysts and investors alike attempt to figure out how the company intends to clean up a spectacular (in a bad way) mess in Minas Gerais.

Here’s what happened, in BHP’s words:

The Samarco operations include a three tiered tailings dam complex. Within this complex, the Fundão dam failed and the downstream Santarém dam has been affected. This resulted in a significant release of mine tailings, flooding the community of Bento Rodrigues and impacting other communities downstream.The third dam in the complex, the Germano dam, is being monitored by Samarco. At this time, there is no confirmation of the causes of the tailings release.

Samarco is jointly operated with Brazilian giant Vale and BHP has been keen to note that the joint venture is “responsible for the entirety” of the Minas Gerais operations. After the company's operating license was revoked on Monday, its debt plunged, with some $2.2 billion in paper due 2022, 2023, and 2024 hitting record lows.

For those who might have missed it, the following images will tell you pretty much all you need to know about what happened:

(via WSJ)

And here's Deutsche Bank's take, which underscores the significance:

BHP and Vale's 30Mtpa Samarco iron ore mine in Southern Brazil (50/50 JV) has suffered a catastrophic tailings dam failure. The mine represents c. 10% of our BHP earnings and 3% of NPV, we now assume the mine is shut until FY19. Pellet production was recently expanded to 30Mtpa at a cost of US$3.2b. Media reports have stated that there is a significant and tragic loss of life. Based on public images of the failure we estimate that the dam contained over 300Mt or 150Mm3 of tailings and Samarco could be down for years while the clean-up costs may exceed US$1b. This accident will add further pressure to BHP's cash flow, growth and safeguarding of the progressive dividend

At around 0530am AEST on Nov 6, Samarco’s largest tailings facility failed causing slurry to race through the open pit and down the valley into the local village of Bento Rodrigues and into local waterways. The media is reporting that between 15 and 17 people have died and 45 others are missing. Samarco states in its FY14 sustainability report that it employs a management system referred to as “Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) system” to control tailings dam failure risks. It could be months before Vale, BHP, State and Federal governments complete their assessment of the incident. The clean-up, community support, litigation and rebuilding of the tailings dam (if approved and deemed feasible) could mean that Samarco is shut for years. The mine employs 3,100 people and is one of the largest employers in the region. Samarco contributed US$369m to BHP earnings in FY15 and before this incident we estimated it would contribute US$308m in FY16. We have assumed the mine is shut until FY19, the workforce remains employed, and BHP’s share of the clean-up and dam rebuild costs US$500m. We have excluded any recouping of costs from insurance at this stage.

Of course this is the sellside penguin brigade so naturally, all of that somehow translates to a "Hold":

As WSJ notes:

Brazilian officials on Sunday raised the death toll to three people, two of whom were found in the path of the mud flow, and a third who died while receiving medical treatment. That number is expected to rise, as at least 28 people are now confirmed missing.

“BHP Billiton will continue to work with Samarco, Vale, the local communities, local authorities, regulators and insurers to assess the full impact of this tragic incident,” BHP said.

The shutdown will reduce BHP’s iron-ore production this fiscal year—cutting into profit when falling commodity prices already are already making it more difficult for the company to keep its promise to maintain or lift shareholder dividends. Samarco last year accounted for roughly 3% of BHP’s underlying earnings.

Right, so in other words, this is an unmitigated disaster.

On the "bright" side, the fallout could take some excess supply offline, and could impact prices. Here's more, via Bloomberg:

Deactivation of production at Samarco Mineracao mine, a JV between BHP Billiton and Vale, is likely to pressure iron-ore prices, Christopher Tuck, mineral commodity specialist at U.S. Geological Survey’s National Minerals Information Center, says in interview in Rio.
- "Any deactivation, on this scale, will have an impact on seaborne trade. The varying factor that would affect prices is the length of time this mine remains inoperable. The larger time it remains idled, the greater the likelihood it will have an impact on prices’’
- Potential impact on price of pellets much more significant than effect on overall market
- Short-term idling could level off prices through end of 2015; if output is halted long-term, prices could increase slightly

We suppose the takeaway here is that an already abysmal backdrop for BHP just got a lot worse, which means you may want to brace yourself if you're a shareholder and if you're a Brazilian villager, just hold your breath and wait for your compensatory check from Samarco - we're sure it's in the mail.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-09/shares-worlds-largest-miner-plunge-seven-year-low-after-massive-toxic-mudslide-engul

Friday, November 6, 2015

The Most Surprising Thing About Today's Jobs Report

After several months of weak and deteriorating payrolls prints, perhaps the biggest tell today's job number would surprise massively to the upside came yesterday from Goldman, which as we noted earlier, just yesterday hiked its forecast from 175K to 190K. And while as Brown Brothers said after the reported that it is "difficult to find the cloud in the silver lining" one clear cloud emerges when looking just a little deeper below the surface.

That cloud emerges when looking at the age breakdown of the October job gains as released by the BLS' Household Survey. What it shows is that while total jobs soared, that was certainly not the case in the most important for wage growth purposes age group, those aged 25-54.

As the chart below shows, in October the age group that accounted for virtually all total job gains was workers aged 55 and over. They added some 378K jobs in the past month, representing virtually the entire increase in payrolls. And more troubling: workers aged 25-54 actually declined by 35,000, with males in this age group tumbling by 119,000!

Little wonder then why there is no wage growth as employers continue hiring mostly those toward the twilight of their careers: the workers who have little leverage to demand wage hikes now and in the future, something employers are well aware of.

The next chart shows the break down the cumulative job gains since December 2007 and while workers aged 55 and older have gained over 7.5 million jobs in the past 8 years, workers aged 55 and under, have lost a cumulative total of 4.6 million jobs.

The same chart as above showing the full breakdown by age group - once again the 25-54 age group sticks out.

But young workers' loss is old workers' gain, as the following chart of total jobs held by those aged 55 and over shows. As of October, there was a record 33.8 million workers in the oldest age group tracked by the BLS - the same workers who, as noted above, also have the poorest wage negotiating leverage.

Finally, the most disappointing data point in today's report is that while overall labor growth was solid, the participation rate for workers 25-54, was 80.7%, far below is peak of just under 85%, and below the 80.8% at the end of 2014.

Time for a rate hike?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-06/most-surprising-thing-about-todays-jobs-report

Thursday, November 5, 2015

EES: Play The Forex Fix - JPY And CHF Pairs Range Bound

The Forex market is very unusual; it's the largest market in the world with the least amount of significant players (a handful of large banks and central banks control the Forex market).

We see everyday in the news more and more proof that the Forex market, to a large degree, is fixed. Just today, two traders from Rabobank have been convicted of rigging Libor rates:

Two British citizens face lengthy prison sentences in the US after being convicted of rigging Libor interest rates, in the first case of its kind to reach a courtroom across the Atlantic. The two former traders at the Dutch bank Rabobank - Anthony Allen, Rabobank's former global head of liquidity and finance, and Anthony Conti, a former senior trader - both intend to appeal against the verdicts reached by a federal jury in Manhattan.

The US justice department said the verdicts showed that the authorities were determined to crack down on financial crime.

Instead of getting into the detail of how and why the Forex market is different, and that it's fixed; let's look at some charts of USDJPY and EURCHF.

USDJPY 1 Hour

EURCHF 1 Hour

As you can see from the above 2 pairs which are not connected or correlated, there are defined ranges and little direction. While USDJPY has a slight trend up and EURCHF has a slight trend down, they mostly are range bound.

Why is this? Both the BOJ and the SNB have intervened in the market to influence the Forex market, and in some cases have defined predetermined 'fix' levels where they want the currencies to be. They can do that, because they are the primary emission of the currency!

A simple range bound strategy - trade the ranges

If you have the ability to trade spot Forex, trading these ranges is simple. In the case of USDJPY, simply sell when there's a big move up and buy when there's a big move down. There are ways to use algorithms to execute this as well - simply program them to trade against the market - if USDJPY is going up - sell, and if USDJPY is going down, buy.

Of course, there are situations where they will break out of the range - which is why it is always prudent to use stop losses and other account protection methods. The ranges certainly will not last forever - but the point is to make money while they last!

Trading ranges with options

If available at your broker, trading these ranges with options is great, especially with options such as 'double no touch' which allows traders to bet that a pair will stay within a certain range.

For serious traders, sell a call above the range and sell a put below the range for the duration you believe the range will last (30 days, a reasonable time). Or in the reverse and in the money, buy a put above the range and buy a call below the range.

What this bet is really all about - the Forex Fix

Not only do the banks fix Forex market rates, the central banks openly manipulate the Forex market in many ways:

Most basically, setting the interest rates
Capital controls (such as the case with emerging markets)
Actual Forex market intervention

See a short timeline of central bank intervention from Reuters here.

What are the best range bound Forex pairs?

Simply open your platform and look hourly or daily charts. Currently any CHF pair should be the best, and the best CHF pair - EURCHF. Any pair which is connected to a central bank that openly intervenes in the market, is subject to such behavior. JPY is a little more volatile than CHF, as Japan has a real economy it needs to manage (no offense, Switzerland!).

Remember - Forex is a countertrend market. It always pays in Forex to bet against the trend. Forget "The trend is your friend" and start listening to "Home, home on the range."

About Elite E Services Forex

For updated Forex strategies, checkout Elite E Services blog, Elite Forex Blog.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-05/play-forex-fix-jpy-and-chf-pairs-range-bound

Bank Of Ireland Bans "Small" Cash Withdrawals At Branches

As central planners the world over grapple with the effective “lower bound” that’s imposed by the existence of physical banknotes, there’s been no shortage of calls for a ban on cash.

Put simply, if you eliminate physical currency, you also eliminate the idea of a floor for depo rates.

After all, if people can’t withdraw paper money and stash it under the mattress, then interest rates can be as negative as the government wants them to be in order to “encourage” consumption. If, for instance, you’re being charged 10% for saving your money, then by God you will probably spend that money rather than see the bank collect a double-digit fee just for holding on to your paycheck.

In the absence of physical cash, there’s no way for depositors to avoid that rather unpalatable outcome unless the public starts buying hard assets like commodities with their debit cards. If you think that sounds far-fetched, just consider the fact that everyone from Citi’s Willem Buiter to economist Ken Rogoff to the German Council Of Economic Experts' Peter Bofinger have now floated the idea.

"With today's technical possibilities, coins and notes are in fact an anachronism," Bofinger told Spiegel back in May.

Now, in what should be a wake up call to the world, Bank of Ireland has banned branch withdrawals of less than €700.

Seriously.

Here's The Irish Times explaining that tellers will still assist the "elderly" if they have trouble using automated methods of obtaining cash:

Under new rules, designed to streamline in-branch services, Bank of Ireland said withdrawals of less than €700 will no longer be facilitated with the assistance of tellers.

From mid-November, customers will have to use ATMs or mobile devices for small and modest-sized withdrawals.

Lodgements of up to €3,000 and those involving less than 15 cheques will also have to use the bank’s dedicated lodgement ATMs.

“Bank of Ireland understands these changes may be a new way of banking for some of our customers, and the branch teams will be available to help and guide them through this change,” the bank said in a statement.

So, if you are, i) wanting less than €700, ii) have less than 15 checks to deposit, or iii) aren't looking to put at least €3,000 into your account, you are no longer welcome inside Bank of Ireland branches.

For his part, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan seems to think that this is, for lack of a better description, absolutely nuts:

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has described restrictions to be imposed by Bank of Ireland on over-the-counter lodgements and withdrawals as both “surprising and unnecessary”.

“I expect the bank to fully honour this commitment and ensure that customers will be facilitated through the existing arrangements where required. I would welcome a clarification form Bank of Ireland on the issue,” he said in a statement.

Yes, Noonan is demanding some "clarification," and you should too, before you discover that the world's central bankers planners have absconded with your physical cash on the way to instituting a regime that will allow for the micromanagement of your purchasing decisions.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-05/bank-ireland-bans-small-cash-withdrawals-branches

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