The chief executive of UK Finance has defended decisions by banks to close half of Scotland’s branches and thousands of ATMs, arguing they were responding to “consumer demand”.
David Postings argued that research showed that cash demand had fallen, with only 17% of transactions now using notes and coins, down from 50% five years ago, which was “much quicker” than the banks anticipated.
“We are responding to consumer demand - it's dropping - and I don’t think that is going to change,” he stated. “Cash usage is definitely falling; it hasn't recovered since the pandemic - so a lot of that infrastructure is uneconomic and what we are setting out to do is protect access to cash by working together with the government and regulators.”
The statements were made during a Scottish Affairs Committee session on access to cash, alongside Richard Cooper, executive director of marketing at Cardtronics; Adrian Roberts, chief commercial officer at LINK; and Richard Piggin, head of external affairs at Which?
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David Postings argued that research showed that cash demand had fallen, with only 17% of transactions now using notes and coins, down from 50% five years ago, which was “much quicker” than the banks anticipated.
“We are responding to consumer demand - it's dropping - and I don’t think that is going to change,” he stated. “Cash usage is definitely falling; it hasn't recovered since the pandemic - so a lot of that infrastructure is uneconomic and what we are setting out to do is protect access to cash by working together with the government and regulators.”
The statements were made during a Scottish Affairs Committee session on access to cash, alongside Richard Cooper, executive director of marketing at Cardtronics; Adrian Roberts, chief commercial officer at LINK; and Richard Piggin, head of external affairs at Which?
Read more
Why Cash is your best ally in times of Crisis
