Payment Choice Alliance - Latest News Feed

Hawick - Like Thousands Of Other Communities - Deserves MUCH Better!

As usual, far too little, far too late.

Hawick lost two bank branches - and their 24/7 ATMs - in 2025.

The last bank branch in town, a Lloyds Banking Group Bank of Scotland branch, will close - and have its 24/7 ATM removed - next month.

This will leave Hawick High Street with no bank branch and no 24/7 ATM.

And all the town is getting is a “temporary” Banking Hub until a permanent site is found.

This temporary Banking Hub is NOT on the High Street and presumably will have no 24/7 ATM.

Cash Access UK should have been instructed by LINK Scheme Ltd and the Financial Conduct Authority to use one of the deserted bank branches in Hawick High Street as a PERMANENT Banking Hub.

The obvious - and correct solution - in such circumstances is for the closing “last branch in town” to automatically become the new Banking Hub, with a 24/7 ATM.

I am sure LINK Scheme Ltd and the Financial Conduct Authority will say “we have no powers to order Cash Access UK [owned by four of the Big Five UK Banks] to take over abandoned bank branches”.

THEN GET THOSE POWERS FROM HM Treasury.

HM Treasury has FAILED to safeguard 24/7 cash access and FAILED to safeguard community banking services.

Thousands of communities around the UK are suffering as a result of those failures.

Do the public from those communities - millions of them - have to come to 1 Horseguards to make HM Treasury understand the extent of their failures?

Just let us know.

Source: thesouthernreporter.co.uk/business/access-to-cash-will-continue-in-borders-town-as-banks-close-their-doors-8961538

Post Office Cash Tracker Is NOT The Whole Story!

It is, of course, good that the Post Office has a “Cash Tracker”.

The only problem?

It does not give anything approaching the complete picture of the cash the UK public - us - use as we go about our daily lives.

That is in keeping with all the other data sets about cash produced by UK Finance, LINK Scheme Ltd, the Big Five UK Banks, the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority. All of them - at best - give only part of the total picture.

So let’s try to shed more light on how the Post Office is doing with cash at their counters and some comparisons with other cash channels.

In 2025, the total cash deposited at post office counters was between £33 and £35 billion. What % of total UK cash deposits were made at post office counters in 2025?

The figure is not published, like most figures related to cash, unless they help create the illusion favoured by the Big Five UK banks that cash is “dying”.

Turning to cash withdrawals, the total cash withdrawn at those same post office counters was between £10 billion and £12 billion.

Let’s use the higher figure of £12 billion.

The average value of a cash withdrawal at a post office counter is around £140.

So that means that there were roughly 85 million counter cash withdrawals at post office counters in 2025.

To put this into perspective, there were roughly 800 million LINK cash withdrawals made at UK ATMs in 2025 and a further roughly 96 million on-us ( bank customers using their own banks ATMs) cash withdrawals made at ATMs last year.

So total ATM cash withdrawal volume for 2025 - excluding credit card withdrawals- was around 896 million.

Given that the total number of post office counter cash withdrawals was only 85 million, this means that those counters provided less than 10% of the number of withdrawals made at ATMs.

What does that mean?

Put bluntly, that anyone who says that post office counters can replace ATMs as a source of cash for the UK public is either totally bonkers - or an obvious liar.

Which explains why only 4% of the UK public told YouGov in May this year that they support the phasing out of 24/7 ATMs in favour of cash access being solely via post office counters.

Yet that is exactly the direction in which HM Treasury and the Big Five UK banks continue to push - and which meets their definition of “reasonable” cash access.

We don’t know if this will all emerge from the Richard Lloyd chaired Access to Banking Services Review.

BUT emerge it will.

WE guarantee it.

Only One Place For The Truth About Cash In The UK!

A quote, regarding findings from European Central Bank market research.

“In 2026, 92% of of Euro-area companies that sell their goods and services in physical locations reported that they accept cash. The corresponding share in 2024 was 90%.

Companies covered by the survey have a higher regard for cash than digital payments in terms of privacy and reliability. A high share of companies also perceive cash to be better than digital payments in terms of overall costs, transaction speed, ease of handling and security.”

Three comments.

It would be great to compare with findings from similar Bank of England market research.
The number of businesses accepting cash is high - and increasing.
Businesses believe that cash outperforms digital on “ overall costs, transaction speed, ease of handling and security”. Frankly, stunning findings.

The harsh reality is that in the UK we are NEVER told the truth about cash.

Everything we are fed by most of the financial services industry and the “authorities” is thinly-disguised promotion of “cashless”.

It has been very difficult to get the truth out into the public domain, because significant elements of the media have fallen for the ”cashless” bull****.

However, the cracks are appearing and soon “cashless” will be swept away.

That really can’t come soon enough -but 2027 will be just fine….

Source: finextra.com/newsarticle/48255/companies-prefer-cash-over-digital-payments---ecb

A Good Future For Cash In The UK

“Future of cash in UK explained…” by UK Finance?

This isn’t an explanation.

It’s a wish list, prepared by an organisation that counts amongst its most important members - and funders - the same banks that have determinedly been making cash much less conveniently accessible for more than a decade, as well as “encouraging” businesses not to accept cash.

Even if one accepts the UK Finance estimate of 3.9 billion being the number of cash payments in 2025 - they are not going to come up with a high estimate, are they? - the “explanation” is not quite as they portray it.

When YouGov, on behalf of the Payment Choice Alliance, conducted a survey on cash use in May 2026, it emerged that 72% of adults had used cash in the last month and around 40% had used cash weekly or more frequently.

40% of the UK adult population is around 23 million regular cash users.

Of the 3.9 billion cash payments estimated by UK Finance, around 3 billion are carried out by these 23 million regular users.

Which means, on average, each of those 23 million regular cash users made around 130 cash payments in 2025.

That is NOT a small or insignificant number.

The other questions YouGov put to the UK public on behalf of the Payment Choice Alliance - questions that would NEVER be asked by UK Finance - concerned, firstly, support for a “cashless” UK and , secondly, support for legislation obliging the acceptance of cash.

Only 10% of UK adults supported the UK becoming a “cashless” society when asked in May 2026, as against 12% in 2023.

Yes. Support for “cashless” is actually FALLLING.

As regards, the UK publics support for legislation obliging the acceptance of cash, 72% supported in 2026, as against 71% in 2023.

To sum up these numbers, 23 million regular cash users made on average 130 cash payments in 2025; in 2026, only 6 million UK adults in any way support the UK becoming a “cashless” society; and around 42 million UK adults support legislation being passed to oblige cash acceptance.

You will NOT get such figures from UK Finance OR LINK Scheme Ltd OR HM Treasury OR the Bank of England OR the Financial Conduct Authority OR ANY other organisation in the UK.

They don’t ask the questions because they don’t want to face up to the answers.

THAT GAME IS UP.

There is a new Prime Minister in Downing Street and a new Chancellor at HM Treasury.

Andy Burnham in particular seems to give the truth a high priority.

He knows where to come for the truth about cash - the Payment Choice Alliance

Source: walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/future-cash-uk-explained-make-34480722.amp

Busy Bank Branches Closed, As Banks Are Economic With The Truth!

This is an article from the Daily Record in 2018.

A quote.

“Customer numbers at closure-threatened RBS branches are up to 20 times higher than those suggested by official bank figures, a Sunday Mail investigation has found.”

The story is absolutely 100% CORRECT.

The Payment Choice Alliance has visited communities up and down the UK and have discovered the same “incompetence” when banks issue customer numbers.

This story broke at exactly the same time as our Chair Ron Delnevo was telling the BBC that thousands of free-to-use ATMs would be lost due to the LINK Scheme Ltd being allowed to reduce the already tiny payments to ATM operators for each cash withdrawal.

The Bank of England said Ron was scaremongering.

The outcome? Well over 20,000 free-to-use ATMs have been lost.

The banks didn’t want the ATMs ripped out when they closed branches replaced. So payments to ATM operators had to be too low to allow replacement.

Let’s be completely transparent.

This is NOT about “incompetence”.

The UK public have been consistently LIED to for YEARS.

What COULD have been the future of bank branches is made crystal clear by the statistics on internet shopping.

Today in the UK, around 28% of retail purchases are made via the internet.This peaked at around 37% during covid. It has never been above 40%.

If retailers like Marks and Spencer had taken the same approach as the major UK banks,they could have simply moved their whole business to the Internet,telling us nobody is using their branches any more.

87% of UK adults make some purchases on the Internet - roughly the same percentage as have smartphones - so Marks and Spencer’s could simply have decided to try to force those 87% to shop only online by closing their high street branches down.

Why didn’t Marks and Spencer close all their branches down, forcing their customers online?

BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT GUARANTEE OTHER RETAILERS WOULD DO THE SAME.

The banks haven’t had the same problem.

All of the Big Five UK banks decided,effectively simultaneously,to close their branches down and rip out ATMs.

If one bank - Charlie Nunn and his Lloyds Banking Group ? - had decided to go against this trend, it would not have played out as it has.

Branch customers numbers would have been down because of the Internet and apps, BUT if banks had worked at attracting customers to their branches, as Marks and Spencer do as retailers, those branches could have been enjoying a good percentage of the footfall they had before the internet came along.

How high? 50%? 60%? 70%?

We won’t see an estimate from the banks BUT a recent Post Office Ltd survey revealed that 48% of adults had used in-person banking in the last month - and that in a situation where there are almost no bank branches now!

I have no idea how much of the truth about what’s happened in relation to branch banking in the UK will be revealed by the HM Treasury Access to Banking Services Review, Chaired by Richard Lloyd.

We shall see.

If PM Andy Burnham does want the full facts, he knows where we are.

Post Office Banking Access Research Confirms Payment Choice Alliance Research Findings.

This is an excellent piece of research by Post Office Ltd.

The Payment Choice Alliance research, carried out by YouGov, largely supports the Post Office figures.

For example, 68% of respondents told the Post Office that they wanted in-person banking services to be available close to home.

The figure from the YouGov research for the Payment Choice Alliance was 76%.

It is absolutely clear what the UK public WANTS by way of access to banking services. The question?

Can Richard Lloyd OBE, who is the Chair of the on-going HM Treasury Access to Banking Services Review, ensure the UK public get what they WANT.

If Richard is too constrained by the limited scope that HM Treasury has imposed on his Review, he should make that very clear and walk away, if HM Treasury refuse to allow him to deliver EVERYTHING the UK public WANTS.

Source: corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/purpose-strategy/research-reports/access-to-banking-review

Why Doesn’t The Bank of England Consult The Public About Cash?!

This “cash consultation” in New Zealand is notable for several reasons. Firstly, that it has happened at all.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has shown great respect for both Democracy and the Public Interest by conducting such a consultation.

Unsurprisingly, there have been thousands of responses.

Pro rata to population levels, based on the number of public responses received in New Zealand, the same consultation run by the Bank of England would elicit OVER 80,000 responses.

I suspect the number would be MUCH higher.

A YouGov survey in May this year found that only 10% of UK adults support the country having “cashless” imposed on it - and 72% support a law obliging businesses to accept cash.

Is the Bank of England denying the UK public a consultation because it doesn’t want to hear how positive the UK public feel about cash?

Or could it be that the Bank of England doesn’t want to cross swords with HM Treasury, a government department that has seemingly been pursuing a “cashless” agenda for a number of years.

The colour of ties or scarfs the politicians wear may change - but the HM Treasury negativity about cash does not.

Secondly, whilst the Reserve Bank of New Zealand prefers to work collaboratively with the banks, it is clearly prepared to compel the banks to do what is necessary in the Public Interest.

When would that ever happen in the UK?

There has been far too much collaboration, against the Public Interest.

Finally, the Governor of New Zealand’s Central Bank is Anna Breman, who previously worked at Sveriges riksbank, Swedens Central Bank.

The Riksbank has in recent years taken a strong line AGAINST “cashless”. This includes insisting that bank branches offer counter cash services and backing legislation to compel cash acceptance by businesses.

Why would Anna Breman take a different stance in New Zealand?

Here in the UK, the Payment Choice Alliance is confident that the new Labour Government, with PM Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey MP leading the way, will take a strong, positive line on both cash access and cash acceptance.

There is an ideal opportunity to take such a line via the new Financial Services and Markets Bill, which will be back in the House of Commons by October.

It cannot come soon enough….

Source: rbnz.govt.nz/news-and-events/news/2026/08/strong-public-interest-in-cash-consultation

The UK Public Want 24/7 ATMs In EVERY Community!

When the Payment Choice Alliance surveyed the UK public earlier this year, 85% of adults said they didn’t want to lose their free-to-use 24/7 ATMs.

85% equates to over 49 Million adults.

There are now less than 30,000 free-to-use 24/7 ATMs in the UK, with around 20,000 lost since LINK ATM Scheme - effectively controlled by the big UK banks - was allowed to take the unilateral decision to set payments to ATM operators at uneconomic levels.

The number of 24/7 ATMs continues to fall.

Despite this wanton destruction of 24/7 ATM cash access, LINK report that in 2025 87% of the cash used by the UK public continued to be withdrawn from ATMs.

Even the much hyped “Banking Hubs” - which could be vital to the UK public if they were provided in sufficient numbers and offered a Full Banking Service, including comprehensive cash access - hardly ever have 24/7 ATMs.

One word to describe all of this?

DISGRACEFUL.

Meantime, the Financial Conduct Authority, which is supposed to be safeguarding cash access, reports that they produce their cash access statistics based on “57,658 reported UK cash access points and 548,885 cashback locations”.

We have news for the Financial Conduct Authority. The UK public don’t really give a damn about these 500,000 plus other locations.

As made clear from the Payment Choice Alliance survey - and confirmed by LINKs own figures - the UK public WANT and NEED 24/7 ATM convenient cash access in their own communities.

All other “locations” mentioned by the Financial Conduct Authority are a very poor 2nd best, a “little consolation” prize the UK public don’t want imposed on them.

The Payment Choice Alliance stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the UK public on this crucial issue - and we will NOT accept NO for an answer.

There will be 24/7 ATMs in EVERY community!

Source: fca.org.uk/data/access-cash-coverage-uk-2025-h2

Modernising The Few Remaining Bank Branches Is NOT Enough!

This is a post about innovation at one of the remaining Lloyds Bank branches in Birmingham.

And “the remaining” is the crux of the issue.

There has been no shortage of innovations - including in relation to cash and ATMs - the “Big Five” UK banks COULD have introduced when they had networks of branches properly covering the country and serving the British public.

BUT the banks didn’t want to make innovations at that stage.

They wanted to close branches, rip out ATMs and eventually impose “cashless” - so why would the banks have wanted branches and ATMs to be more useful to the British public?

Just one example is cash deposit/recycling ATMs.

For many years, EVERY ATM in Japan has accepted cash deposits and efficiently recycled the cash, allowing it to be withdrawn by customers.

Banks in many other countries have introduced this service.

Very few ATMs in the UK utilise this readily available technology.

Branch innovation at the few remaining Big Five bank branches in the UK, whilst welcome, has limited value.

What the British public need to see is a minimum of 1200 Banking Hubs - covering every UK community with 5000 or more residents - fully fitted with all the latest 24/7 cash deposit, recycling and withdrawal equipment AND offering genuine face-to-face banking advice services.

That’s what we will be telling Richard Lloyd and his “Access to Banking Services Review”. We know the current HM Treasury team don’t want to hear this obvious truth - but they will be gone even before Richard submits his report.

However, the new Prime Minister will be VERY interested in what Richard has to say..

AND - OF COURSE - THE PAYMENT CHOICE ALLIANCE WILL STILL BE HERE, READY TO TALK TO ANDY BURNHAM, WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD LISTENER.

Source: lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/press-releases/2026/lloyds/new-look-lloyds-branch-birmingham-1-million-investment.html

Sinking Cornwall Council Punish Cash Users.

A terrible decision by Cornwall Council, which, according to AI, makes £ millions every year from car parking.

The Council claims it costs them £100,000 a year to process the cash from 138 car parks.

Thats only £750 per car park per year - or around £2 per day.

So Cornwall Council are prepared to exclude cash users - who the Council says make up at least 10% of total users - from 95 car parks to save around £2 per day per car park.

To put it another way, Cornwall Council charge between £1 and £2.50 per hour for car parking, so they say they will save the equivalent of around one car parking for one hour per car park per day.

Or looking at the decision in another context, Cornwall Council has a total expenditure of £1.2 Billion each year. What thy claim they will save via banning cash from 95 car parks is a mere drop in the Atlantic Ocean that laps at the counties shores.

So any way one looks at it, the amount Cornwall Council say they will save by NOT accepting cash at 95 car parks is insignificant.

However, the harsh reality is that Cornwall Council are not very good at budgeting. They have the 12th biggest debt - over £1.3 Billion - of the nearly 400 local authorities in the UK.

Cornwall Council are sinking in an ocean of debt of their own making.

Cash users are being made to pay - or rather, being STOPPED from paying - for the failures of Cornwall Council in managing their huge overall budget.

Those presumably guiding Cornwall Council to take this terrible decision are Leigh Frost, the Liberal Democrats Leader of the Council, and Kate Kennally, CEO of the Council.

Leigh and Kate can either guide Cornwall Council to reverse this awful decision of their own volition - surely the moral high ground - or they can wait for national legislation to become law, obliging them to accept cash at their car parks.

Their choice - for now.

Source: falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/26269393.car-parks-cornwall-will-still-accept-cash-park