ATMs Not Part of HM Treasury Plans for Cash Access

This story paints an entirely accurate story about the importance of an excellent post office to the local community.

This would be true of thousands of communities around the UK, where post offices have a crucial role to play in the lives of many local residents.

In addition, however, this article completely exposes the reality of the HM Treasury position on cash access.

The HM Treasury is looking to please UK banks by dumping responsibility for cash access almost entirely on post office counters.

That’s why the HM Treasury first “Policy Statement” on cash access, released in mid August 2023, made not one mention of ATMs.

There are more than 11,500 post offices in the UK and less than 1500 have free-to-use post office ATMs.

This in turn means there are more than 10,000 post office WITHOUT free-to-use post office ATMs.

It also means that those 10,000 post offices cannot provide a 24/7 cash service, for either cash deposits or withdrawals.

The Post Office covered in this article - Great Massingham - is one of the 10,000.

This office is open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm and on Saturday from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. It is closed on Sunday.

So cash is accessible in Great Massingham for 52.5 hours of a 168 hour week.

The article goes on to tell us that the cash access provisions outlined by HM Treasury “very closely align” with existing post office access criteria.

Of course they do - because HM Treasury ultimately expects that the vast majority of cash access in the UK will only be available over post office counters.

So as far as HM Treasury is concerned, bank branches and ATMs numbers can continue rapidly heading towards zero, because they really have little part to play in the HM Treasury cash access plan going forward.

Despite the fact that such ATMs currently meet well over 90% of the cash needs of the British public.

What does all this mean?

Starkly, that what HM Treasury is planning is NOT a future for cash.

Just a funeral.