当局说没有必要清空自动取款机

当局说没有必要清空自动取款机

Toilet tissue isn't the only paper product that Americans are hoarding these days. Paper money is also in high demand.

卫生纸并不是美国人这些天来唯一囤积的纸质产品。纸币的需求量也很大。

Banks are seeing more cash withdrawals as nervous customers try to protect themselves from the uncertainty of the coronavirus clampdown.

由于紧张不安的客户试图保护自己免受冠状病毒打击的不确定性，银行正面临更多的现金被提取。

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.

有报告说，特别是来自富裕社区的人，从他们的银行帐户中取出数万美元。据《纽约时报》报道，需求如此之高，以至于曼哈顿中城的一家银行分支机构的100美元钞票一度售罄。第二天银行很快就得到了补充。

While stocking your pantry with pasta and canned goods may provide some measure of security, officials say there are risks to keeping too much cash on hand.

尽管在你的食品储藏室里储备意大利面和罐装食品可能会提供某种程度的安全措施，但官员们表示，手头持有过多现金存在风险。

"Forget hoarding cash. Your money is the safest at the bank," said Jelena McWilliams, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which safeguards bank accounts.

“别囤积现金。你的钱在银行是最安全的，”负责银行账户安全的联邦存款保险公司主席耶莱娜•麦克威廉姆斯表示。

McWilliams understands the anxiety that the coronavirus provokes. She'll confess to making her own panicked grocery run to Costco. But the federal bank regulator says there's no need for customers to empty the ATM.

麦克威廉姆斯理解冠状病毒引起的焦虑。她会承认自己惊慌失措地跑去了好市多。但联邦银行监管机构表示，客户没有必要清空ATM机。

"Just as it is not necessarily rational to hoard toilet paper, it is also not rational to hoard cash," McWilliams said. Some banks have limited hours or even closed branches out of concern for their workers' health. But ATMs are still operating and getting frequent cash deliveries from armored trucks.

麦克威廉姆斯说:“就像囤积卫生纸不合理一样，囤积现金也不合理。”一些银行出于对员工健康的考虑，限制工作时间甚至关闭分支机构。但自动取款机仍在运行，并经常收到装甲车送来的现金。

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin noted this week that armored truck drivers and others who work in financial services are considered essential parts of the nation's critical infrastructure.

美国财政部长史蒂文•姆钦本周指出，运钞车司机和其他在金融服务业工作的人被认为是美国关键基础设施的重要组成部分。

"This is not a natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake where the electricity is out," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "This is the opposite in many ways, in that, if you're holed up at home, having a pile of cash isn't going to do you a whole lot of good."

Bankrate.com的首席金融分析师格雷格·麦克布赖德说:“这不是一场像飓风或地震那样没有电力供应的自然灾害。”“这在很多方面都是相反的，如果你窝在家里，有一大堆钱对你没有任何好处。”

McBride said customers are better off leaving their money in the bank so they can pay their mortgage and credit card bills online. It also relieves any worry about loss or theft.

麦克布赖德说，顾客最好把钱存在银行，这样他们就可以在网上支付抵押贷款和信用卡账单。它也减轻了对丢失或盗窃的担忧。

Before the coronavirus hit, Americans were steadily moving away from cash and increasingly relying on credit cards, debit cards and new forms of digital payment.

在冠状病毒爆发之前，美国人一直在逐步远离现金，越来越多地依赖信用卡、借记卡和新的数字支付方式。

"Even person-to-person payments, that's increasingly done through apps like Venmo or Zelle and not by reaching into your pocketbook, pulling out some green stuff and handing it to your colleague," McBride said.

麦克布赖德说:“即使是人与人之间的支付，也越来越多地通过Venmo或Zelle等应用来完成，而不是从你的钱包里掏出一些绿色的东西，然后递给你的同事。”

Of course, millions of Americans don't have bank accounts and may have to rely on cash. Some have suggested that handling paper money may increase your chances of getting or passing on the coronavirus, although there's little scientific consensus on that.

当然，数百万美国人没有银行账户，可能不得不依赖现金。有些人认为，处理纸币可能会增加你感染或传播冠状病毒的几率，尽管科学界对此几乎没有共识。

In some cases, people's rush to pull money out of the bank has been stoked by scam artists. The FDIC warned a California gold dealer last week to stop advertising its products with the false claim that consumer bank accounts could be seized in a time of crisis.

在某些情况下，人们急于把钱从银行提出来是被骗子煽动起来的。美国联邦存款保险公司上周警告加州一家黄金交易商，不要再用消费者银行账户可能在危机时期被冻结的虚假声明为其产品做广告。

"That is absolutely false," McWilliams said. "It's patently false. And frankly it's criminal in my opinion."

“这绝对是错误的，”麦克威廉姆斯说。“这是明显错误的。坦率地说，我认为这是犯罪。”

The nation's banks came into this crisis in strong financial shape. Even if a bank were to fail, deposits are insured up to $250.000 per account.

在这场危机中，美国的银行保持着良好的财务状况。即使银行破产，每个账户的存款保险最高可达25万美元。

"Nobody has ever lost any money guaranteed that's been protected by federal deposit insurance," McBride said.

麦克布赖德说:“没有人损失过任何有联邦存款保险保障的钱。”