this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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Danish banks have implemented significant restrictions on how Danish kroner (DKK) used outside Denmark can be repatriated back into Denmark.

Due to these circumstances, which are unfortunately beyond Mullvad’s control, Mullvad will no longer be able to accept DKK from its customers. We will continue to credit DKK received until the end of the month, but considering postal delays, it is best to stop sending it immediately.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Denmark not being part of the eurozone despite its central location is extremely funny to me. Like some monetary San Marino.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 7 months ago (2 children)

They can pry my kroner from my cold dead hands!

But seriously, you're right. What makes it even stranger is that the value of kroner is pegged at 746,038 kroner pr. 100 euro. Which, basically, is just euros with extra steps.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

There's a lot more to sovereign monetary policy than currency exchange rates, such as the capital controls being exercised here

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I was trying to find information about this restriction. It seems it applies to cash and relates to Danish banks' ability to implement AML controls. https://www.nationalbanken.dk/en/what-we-do/notes-and-coins/exchange-of-danish-cash-abroad

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's more related to the fact that once you join the Eurozone (ERM II) there's no way to take it back, and for some reason this resonates negatively with Danish people. AFAIK there's been opinion polls the suggest that a referendum on the matter would (still) not pass. Also AFAIK the Danish political agenda does not lean particularly for or against it otherwise, as you said, it's technically moot either way.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You do realize that Danish and Dutch are two entirely different people in two entirely different countries?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Ha ha, sorry, I'm having an early morning moment. I've kept talking about Dutch instead of Danish, I'll fix it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I think it's important to remember that the Eurozone has two stages (ERM I and II) and they're both important but for different reasons.

ERM I is about achieving long term economical stability, which is established according to a series of indices called convergence criteria, that are evaluated every two years on even years. A member can technically apply for the second stage if they pass only two consecutive evaluations (4 years) with all-green marks, but the members that join nowadays do so after about a decade of green evaluations.

The goal of ERM I is to make sure a member's economy is stable to the point that switching the currency to the euro becomes moot. But it is also a win in itself (long term economical balance).

You may wonder why even bother with ERM II if every member were ERM I. Well, ERM I is what is called a common monetary policy – but ERM II is a common fiscal policy, which would mean deeper alignment and integration of all fiscal instruments across the Union.

There is no deadline that the members must meet but most EU members are legally committed to entering ERM II someday. There's no deadline because you can't wish economic stability true; each member will achieve it when it achieves it.

To give some examples:

  • Denmark has been passing ERM I convergence criteria for more than a decade and can technically enter ERM II at any time and would be a formality. But they have an opt-out that says they are extempt from the legal committment to do so. Also, Danish public opinion is split fairly evenly about it.
  • Croatia and Bulgaria have met the criteria for more than 10 years before they adopted the euro.
  • The UK has never met the criteria between 2012-2018 so they couldn't have adopted the euro even if they wanted to. But of course they didn't want to, and also had a legal opt-out.
  • Romania is one of the members that's legally committed to entering ERM II but have never managed to achieve two consecutive green evaluations since 2012. And that's despite the fact their economy is in arguably better shape than Bulgaria's (in volume and growth).
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I am going to absolutely take this at face value without checking any of the text because anything that is so well written, must be true! Thanks, I learnt a heap from this.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Only Nordic countries think Denmark is central. And Norway isn't even in the EU.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I mean, we got Finland and half the Baltics.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's not really that central, every single eurozone country is south of Denmark. Denmark is only at the periphery of the eurozone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Well, you have Finland in the north-east, Ireland in the north-west, and every land border faces a Euro-zone country. Few other countries can claim the latter.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Canada is not a Euro-zone country.

And also, Ireland is south of Denmark.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

"Every land border"...There is only one...

Edit: and looking at a map, actually several countries have "every land border" to eurozone countries. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg all fit that one, several with multiple land borders even. That's 30% of the eurozone countries.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Denmark does in fact have a very small land border with Canada - this happened quite recently and is pretty funny. So it's actually 2! 😄

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

That true...so it doesn't even share every land border with the eurozone! 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Some of those probably have some tiny overseas territory for which that is not true.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

overseas territories would probably be island states, so they're unlikely to have a land border to any country at all. But sure, maybe there is some. But then the Danish/Canadian border would count too, making it untrue for Denmark as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Spain has land borders with 3 non-EU countries...

[–] [email protected] 47 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is part of the law to stop money laundering.

Denmark had issues in the past that pulled money out of Denmark with either cash or money transfers, and therefore banks have to document where big transfers come from.

So this is basically an unfortunate example on how this also hits innocent companies.

But Denmark had to stop it all together, because we are talking about billions being pulled from Denmark this way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

It's also just the scale of Denmark. The US has billions pulled from the US every day and it's not a problem but the US isn't a small country of 6 million people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't make any sense.

The US just accepts that money laundering is taking place, Denmark tries to do the opposite.

The US has no many problems, and this is also one of them. Imagine what "billions a day" could fix around the country.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

That doesn't make any sense. Currency outside a nation isn't laundering, USD is used as a trade medium around the world even when not trading with US banks or entities. Idk why you're saying that "billions a day" is taxpayer money or something and it wouldn't fix around the country, it'd go into the military like usual.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That doesn't make any sense.

The US just accepts money laundering is taking place, Denmark tries to do the opposite.

The US has no many problems, and this is also one of them. Imagine what "billions a day" could fix around the country.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

That doesn't make any sense.

The US just accepts money laundering is taking place, Denmark tries to do the opposite.

The US has no many problems, and this is also one of them. Imagine what "billions a day" could fix around the country.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

I didn't recognize the DKK acronym and thought it was a cryptocurrency for a second.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Danes annoying Swedes on purpose? I am shocked! Shocked I say!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Well, not that shocked.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is there an easy way to buy monero?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

Convert Bitcoin on a DEX.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

When I was in Denmark I was shocked how many cameras there were, everywhere. I mean not just in the city, but everywhere on the countrywide.

Also Denmark is one of those weird countries where its illegal to have your map software tell you where the speed cameras are.

In general, it feels like Denmark loves panoptic surveillance.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When I was in Denmark I was shocked how many cameras there were, everywhere. I mean not just in the city, but everywhere on the countrywide.

I've lived in Denmark for decades. The only cameras I see are basically surveillance cameras in stores etc and speed cameras. I see more cameras in most other countries I go to.

We have nothing compared to fx. London.

Where did you see cameras?

Denmark is one of those weird countries where its illegal to have your map software tell you where the speed cameras are.

That's not correct. You can even buy gadgets for this in many stores.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like you haven't lived in Denmark for a while. Homes have cameras, beaches have cameras, forests have cameras, roads have cameras

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

You can't read.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Also Denmark is one of those weird countries where its illegal to have your map software tell you where the speed cameras are.

That is not true at all. The police has even officially recommended the use of speed trap avoidance software. We even have an entire market of it, most notably with Saphe that's probably the world's biggest producer of traffic alarms.