This is an overview of geographical cash access coverage in the UK at the end of the second quarter (April to June) of 2022. This monitoring forms part of the FCA’s work on access to cash.
On a quarterly basis, the FCA, along with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), gather and update data on access to cash. This captures the locations of cash access points and other relevant information like temporary closures, opening hours, and accessibility. This data covers brick-and-mortar, mobile bank, and building society branches, automated teller machines (ATMs), and the Post Office network. We supplement this information with annual data on cashback locations.
This analysis provides insights on the proportion of the population that lives within a range of distances of various cash access points, although in this summary the FCA focuses on those within 2km and 5km of a cash access point.
The FCA estimates that for access to any bank, building society, Post Office branch, or any ATM (either free or pay-to-use):
- 96.5% of the UK population are currently within 2km of a cash access point
- 99.8% of the UK population are currently within 5km of a cash access point
- 96.3% of the UK population are currently within 2km of a free-to-use cash access point
- 99.8% of the UK population are currently within 5km of a free-to-use cash access point
For the UK as a whole, estimates of coverage at 2km and 5km for all access points, including free-to use access points only, have not changed since 2022 Q1. This applies to the UK population overall, as well as rural and urban populations separately. It also applies whether we include or exclude cashback. However, there has been changes in the type of access points available over this time. Between 2022 Q1 and 2022 Q2:
- the number of brick-and-mortar branches of the larger banks and building societies providing personal current accounts (PCA) fell by 107 branches between Q1 and Q2, a decrease of 2.1%.
- there was a small decrease in the availability of Post Office branches (0.6%) between Q1 and Q2.
- there was a small decrease in number of free-to-use ATMs (0.6%) while the number of pay-to-use ATMs dropped by 1.3%