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Lord Bird, founder of the Big Issue and a campaigner for the end of poverty in the UK speaks with Payment Choice Alliance Chair, Ron Delnevo, about the importance of cash when it comes to poverty prevention.

It is quite wrong to suggest there are currently too many ATMs in the UK. The 37,000 remaining free-to-use ATMs in the UK are actually providing the public with the same amount of cash as they were pre-pandemic. The Big Five UK banks, who call the tune at the LINK ATM Network, want to force a reduction in ATM numbers. They only operate around 10,000 ATMs at their remaining branches, branches wh....

The “Big 5” UK banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nat West, Santander - started closing their branches and removing ATMs 20 years ago. 90% plus of the British public have accounts - are customers of - those Big Five banks. The decision of the bank Boards to leave High Streets meant it was inevitable , like it or not, that those customers were going to be forced to use online banking. It....

Zoe Partington has owned The Lord Nelson for 13 years but is now paying 30p for a £5 pint in each contactless transaction. Zoe explained: “It’s harder for independent traders whether it’s a convenient shop or hairdressers is struggling now.” Martin Quinn, Campaign Director of the PCA said: “Local pubs, in particular, are being hammered with very high card fees,....

Small businesses in the UK are having their profits squeezed by the Big Five High Street Banks and their card scheme collaborators. An estimate from the Payment Choice Alliance of when the British public and businesses will be ready to go “cashless”? Source: thelincolnite.co.uk/2023/11/card-is-king-but-lincoln-businesses-not-ready-to-give-up-cash-yet/

In this podcast, Martin Quinn, a Campaign Director for the PCA, talks to Money Marketing magazine about CBDC’s privacy implications and highlights accessibility challenges for digitally excluded groups. With a general election approaching, Martin suggests addressing inflation and the cost-of-living crisis should take precedence over prioritising a CBDC, emphasising the importance of support....

There is a HUGE continuing public demand for cash. However, the Big 5 High Street Banks are proving VERY successful in their efforts to impose “cashless” on the British public. Soon there are likely to be no towns with under 35,000 residents with either a bank or a bank ATM. This is an absolute disgrace - but it seems neither the current Government nor any UK Regulator has the gumpt....

The leader of a Scandinavian grassroots movement, Björn Eriksson, has warned that Britain should not follow Sweden towards becoming a cashless society. He urges Britain to keep the two systems side by side (digital and cash), a view the PCA wholeheartedly supports. If you're unable to use digital tools you will, in many ways, be excluded from society - our society will become extremely....

A starting point for rethinking UK cash access and acceptance is dispelling once and for all the notion that the recent HM Treasury Policy Statement on Cash Access was intended to preserve cash access. IT WAS NOT. It was a piece of puffery, designed to allow the High Street banks to continue their programmes of bank branch closures and ATM removals. The Treasury Policy Statement did not even me....

A quote from this article really tells the whole story: “....the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a ban on cashless businesses.” UNANIMOUS. So the “We are cashless” signs will soon be coming down. Those entrusted with running Los Angeles considered what “progress” REALLY means - and decided “cashless” in no way qualified for the label.....