Review Under Review? Andy Burnham Knows What Action Is Required!

The Access to Banking Services Review was meant to report to HM Treasury by the end of October (2026, of course).

Indeed, Chair of the Review Richard Lloyd told a radio programme that he aimed to have his Review in the hands of the Government by September.

No doubt Richard believed that this would allow the recommendations of his Review to be considered for inclusion in the new Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is working its way through the Westminster Parliament.

The silence about this Review in the last couple of months has been deafening, with the sole recent mention being a parliamentary statement by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Rigby KC MP , on 27 October - a statement missed by most in the run up to the Budget, of course - to the effect that the government is currently reviewing the findings and more will emerge in due course.

Good old “due course”, which defines a timeline about as well as “ how long is a piece of string”...

I suppose the reason behind the rest our ears have been granted can be found in the box to be seen in the image below.

This box has been added since the Review started and the sole content is:

“This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government”.

Of course, sensible people had already taken account of the change of leadership in Downing Street.

This explains why the Payment Choice Alliance made sure a copy of our submission to Richard Lloyd was waiting for Andy Burnham when he arrived at Number 10 in July 2026. Leaving nothing to chance?

CORRECT.

And that’s why, to use Richard Lloyd’s own words, the UK public will soon get the access to banking services in their communities - including 24/7 ATMs - that they “ DESIRE and PREFER”.

We usually simply use the word WANT.

Over to you, Prime Minister. We know you have a lot on and it will take time, but we trust you to start delivering what the public WANT in 2027.

That’s the length of our piece of string...

Payment Choice Alliance.