3 ms·

The article states an annual revenue of $2.7b, and a shortage of about $9m. That seems well within the realm of "they can cover it"... but the real problem isn

The article states an annual revenue of $2.7b, and a shortage of about $9m. That seems well within the realm of "they can cover it"... but the real problem isn't the shortage but the practices that lead to it in the first place. I don't see the shocking part of this story as "Garda has a shortage of $9m," but "Garda has had a shortage of what they report to be $9m, and there is strong evidence that they have defrauded auditors to conceal their poor controls for an indefinite period."

simplicio 6y ago
Note the value in these vaults isn't just the monetary amount, but that its actual physical cash. Even if Garda decided to cover the losses out of their revenues, I'm not sure its that easy to get, say, a million dollars in quarters, even if you have a million dollars in funds. (and certainly it'd be hard to do if your trying to hide the fact that your doing it from the Feds). Presumably the reason the banks keep these vaults is because they need the actual currency to be available when needed. There are much easier and cheaper ways for them to store money.
- octoberfranklin 6y ago
  > I'm not sure its that easy to get, say, a million dollars in quarters, even if you have a million dollars in funds. This is probably the main thing preventing Garda from just writing it off as a cost of business. Of course if they own up to the thefts the problem goes away -- their customers are all banks, who would in fact probably prefer to have FEDWIRE dollars rather than coins.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    In which case, why is this a vault service at all? Why not make it a buy/sell coins service which intermingles coins from all customers, and let's you take out different denominations than you put in, etc? That way, the service is better and more effective for banks, and cheaper to run because less physical currency is required overall.
    - octoberfranklin 6y ago
      That would probably require Garda to be registered and regulated as a bank. If they only do this in response to thefts and catastrophes it's more like an insurance payout.

simplicio 6y ago

Note the value in these vaults isn't just the monetary amount, but that its actual physical cash. Even if Garda decided to cover the losses out of their revenues, I'm not sure its that easy to get, say, a million dollars in quarters, even if you have a million dollars in funds. (and certainly it'd be hard to do if your trying to hide the fact that your doing it from the Feds). Presumably the reason the banks keep these vaults is because they need the actual currency to be available when needed. There are much easier and cheaper ways for them to store money.

octoberfranklin 6y ago
> I'm not sure its that easy to get, say, a million dollars in quarters, even if you have a million dollars in funds. This is probably the main thing preventing Garda from just writing it off as a cost of business. Of course if they own up to the thefts the problem goes away -- their customers are all banks, who would in fact probably prefer to have FEDWIRE dollars rather than coins.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  In which case, why is this a vault service at all? Why not make it a buy/sell coins service which intermingles coins from all customers, and let's you take out different denominations than you put in, etc? That way, the service is better and more effective for banks, and cheaper to run because less physical currency is required overall.
  - octoberfranklin 6y ago
    That would probably require Garda to be registered and regulated as a bank. If they only do this in response to thefts and catastrophes it's more like an insurance payout.