The death of the money changer?
What’s happening to money changers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues?
In the pre COVID-19 days of travel, there is a ritual that is performed prior to departure — that of visiting the local money changer or money exchanger to buy the currency of the destination country.
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Despite the age of credit cards and e-transactions, there is something ‘secure’ and visceral about holding physical cash, especially being in a foreign country where credit/debit cards may not be readily accepted. With Singaporeans loving to travel abroad so often either for work or leisure in the past, the money changer shops probably made a decent living through earning in the numerous transactions made in the exchange of currencies and their competing rates.
However, with worldwide travel coming to a halt and people having virtually no reason to visit such money changers, it comes as no surprise that 12 out of the 270 money changers in Singapore have closed at the end of January 2021, according to a report by The Straits Times. With almost no income from money exchanged and yet having to open their shops due to rental contracts, many of these money changers are bleeding financially and are forced to close shop.
What makes it even more challenging is that many of these money changers are family businesses and are still very traditional in operations with hardly any digitalisation and peripheral offerings. Will they be rendered totally obsolete, especially when ‘normal’ travel is not expected to resume anytime soon? What can they realistically do now in order to survive?
Even before the pandemic struck, ‘digital transformation’ has been the buzzword for many organisations but most of them are reluctant to drastically change their modus operandi — it took a pandemic to really push industries across the board to rethink the way they operated and think of how to ‘digitally’ adapt. This digital wave has accelerated and become inevitable, particularly if companies and organisations want to continue to survive and stay relevant.
What other businesses that have not changed the way they have operated for a very long time will be made obsolete as a consequence of the pandemic?
