FCA: Access to cash coverage in the UK 2021 Q3

The FCA provides an overview of geographical cash access coverage in the UK at the end of the third quarter (July to September) of 2021. This is the third in a series of regular updates to 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 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 These coverage estimates are unchanged from 2021 Q2. However, the types of available access points have changed between Q2 and Q3: * The number of brick-and-mortar branches of the larger banks and building societies providing personal current accounts (PCA) continued to fall, as 224 (4%) ceased to do this. Coverage by these branches decreased from 60.1% to 59.6% of the UK population at 2km and from 87.5% to 87.4% at 5km. * There was an increase in the availability of Post Office branches, which offset the reduction in branch coverage. * The number of free-to-use ATMs declined, but the impact on coverage appears negligible.