Cash Access UK opens 100th deposit service
Cash Access UK, the organisation set up to protect nationwide access to cash, has reached the latest milestone with the 100th deposit service opening in Swaffham, Norfolk.
While a great deal of focus is spent on protecting access to cash for consumers, what’s just as important is the ability for small businesses to readily bank cash too. Over the past year, Cash Access UK have been working with partners to deliver innovative deposit services across the country to ensure cash reliant customers and small businesses can easily access and deposit cash in their local community.
Deposit services and additional cash services are recommended by LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network, and come about when a location is determined to have insufficient services for small businesses to deposit and access cash. A banking hub is generally recommended if both personal customers as well as businesses customers face issues accessing cash services.
Deposit services are available through deposit ATMs, which for the first time in the UK allow customers of multiple banks to deposit and access cash through a cash machine. They offer free cash deposits to customers of Barclays, Bank of Scotland, Danske Bank, Halifax, Lloyds, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, TSB, Ulster Bank and Virgin Money with more banks coming soon. The machines are connected to the LINK network and have been set up in partnership with leading ATM providers NCR Atleos (“Atleos”) and NoteMachine.
To date, over £2m has been deposited through the deposit ATMs.
Alongside deposit ATMs, in partnership with the Post Office Cash Access UK also introduces enhanced banking services in local Post Offices, where there is a separate counter for banking customers and new cash hubs which provide local communities with access to assisted cash and basic banking services through a brand new counter service.
In Swaffham, a new deposit taking ATM is now available in the local Asda supermarket in the centre of the town.
This latest milestone follows the opening of the 100th banking hub in Darwen, Lancashire. Banking hubs provide basic cash and face-to-face services to personal and business banking customers across the UK.
To date, 139 deposit and additional cash services have been recommended with 100 now open. This is alongside the 110 banking hubs now open across the country.
Gareth Oakley, CEO at Cash Access UK: “We’re delighted that we have now supported more than 200 communities with new cash services. Cash acceptance relies on the ability of small businesses on the high street to easily access and deposit cash at convenience. Alongside banking hubs, the Super ATMs are making a real difference to communities and we look forward to rolling out many more of these and other deposit services over the coming months.”