Such as when the Irish banks went on strike for about 6 months in the 70s. Edit: It was a lockout not a strike. They survived using olde worlde approaches with

Such as when the Irish banks went on strike for about 6 months in the 70s. Edit: It was a lockout not a strike. They survived using olde worlde approaches with no loss of GDP growth or retail sales. The retailers and local pubs operated as banks and managed the movement of IOU credits and cheques. Publicans, as it turned out, were a pretty good gauge of credit-worthiness and extent. Cheques ended up counter signed dozens of times as they were passed on person to person many times. Retailers would offer cheque cashing to keep money circulating. http://uk.businessinsider.com/pubs-replaced-banks-in-ireland-in-1970-and-the-economy-was-fine-2016-1 http://uk.businessinsider.com/pubs-replaced-banks-in-ireland... Now try that with an app. :)