LONDON — The U.K. government is stepping in to ensure continuity of bank services for isolated communities and vulnerable, elderly or financially excluded customers with its new access to cash legislation, which is part of its imminent Financial Services and Markets Bill.
Bank branches are still needed for legacy non-digital banking customers, “but less often than in the past,” Graham Mott, director of strategy at ATM network LINK Scheme, said at the recent Branch Transformation 2022 at the Park Plaza: Riverside Hotel in London.
The service provider ensures all ATMs in the U.K. are “free” to customers and handles their operational infrastructure. In the future, LINK will be deciding which locations need a new, shared-service center or banking hub to aggregate in-branch services that typically disappear when branches close.
“Five hundred branches closed this year and only five replacement hubs have been identified,” Stephen Jones, vice chairman at fintech OneBanx, said at the conference. “It’s obvious you are not getting the banking service you need if you have to do a 1.5-hour round trip to a nearby village to deposit cash.
“You cannot just abandon customers,” Jones said, adding it’s the reason behind “regulatory pressure for shared hubs.”
Avoiding a banking desert
The new U.K. access to cash mandate will prevent branch closures for small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and consumers who need access to a physical bank location to discuss more complicated in-branch issues, including for matters such as death, divorce, fraud and property.
“We know 30% of U.K. consumers won’t go online,” Jones said. “[Our] job is to ensure they can continue to get served in a bank-agnostic way if traditional providers decide they don’t want to be physically present in locations anymore.”
Bank Automation Summit US 2023, taking place March 2-3 in Charlotte, is a crucial event on automation and automation technology in banking. Learn more and register for Bank Automation Summit US 2023.
