It's not your money, it's theirs
https://stocks.apple.com/Ag2e3UhWmSQeiYesflYVtCg
https://youtu.be/dWyTJP3bl74
No need for money.
Government can have 100% control over you.
Going abroad on holiday will get bleddy expensive if you pay for everything with your card. Imagine having to pay a foreign currency transaction charge every time you buy a beer or coffee....
That's probably part of the plan tho....
Anyone with any sense that travels abroad has a card (or two) that has no foreign transaction fees or exchange rate loadings. Stick it in the first ATM you see at the airport after landing, and take out several hundred spondoolies. Wait for the transaction to show on your interweb banking and pay it off immediatley. Interest cost is a few pence per £100 withdrawn.
No spondoolies allowed, remember. Card only, so we can check you're not being defrauded.
One of the tracking checks they do is at airports. If you use your card at (say) Heathrow, and then again several hours later in (say) LAX, then their software realises you are probably in the USA, and it's less likely to decline your card when you get to the hotel. Doesn't always work, (I've had issues in Shanghai and Australia) but it does reduce the likelyhood of being declined.
The Nat West story appears to be "NatWest allows current account holders to take up to £750 out from a cash machine, or up to £20,000 out of a branch without notifying their ..."
£750 gets you quite a lot of spondoolies. (although AIUI Nat West don't do very good cards for using abroad).