FCA: Access to cash coverage in the UK 2021 Q2

The FCA provides an overview of geographical cash access coverage in the UK at the end of the second quarter (April to June) of 2021. This is the second in a series of regular updates that will monitor coverage over time. On a quarterly basis, the FCA, together with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), are gathering and updating data on cash access point locations and other access characteristics, including temporary closures, opening hours, and accessibility, for brick-and-mortar and mobile bank and building society branches, automated teller machines (ATMs), and the Post Office network. This quarter it has supplemented this information with data on cashback vendor locations. This analysis provides insights on the proportion of the population that live within a range of distances of various cash access points. The FCA measures distances as the crow flies, consistent with the approaches adopted by LINK and the Post Office. The FCA estimates that for access to any bank, building society, Post Office branch, or any ATM (either free or pay-to-use): * 95.7% of the UK population are currently within 2km of a cash access point * 99.7% of the UK population are currently within 5km of a cash access point For free-to-use access points only: * 95.5% of the UK population are currently within 2km of a cash access point * 99.7% of the UK population are currently within 5km of a cash access point Compared to 2021 Q1, this represents an increase of 0.1% at 2km and no change in coverage at 5km distances. However, this small increase in coverage masks 2 opposing effects. The number of brick-and-mortar branches of the larger banks and building societies providing personal current accounts (PCA) fell by 267 between Q1 and Q2. This decreased coverage by such branches from 61.8% to 60.1% of the UK population at 2km and from 88% to 87.5% at 5km. At the same time, an increase in the availability of Post Office branches and ATMs lead to a small improvement in overall coverage.