Cash machines to be culled in network shake-up

Many of Britain's 70,000 cash machines could be axed as consumers continue their move towards electronic payments and online banking.

The 30 or so banks, building societies and independent providers who run the UK's network of ATMs are looking to cut the estimated £900m-a-year operating costs, says The Guardian.

It adds: "The number of cashpoints is at a peak but withdrawals are declining as customers use contactless cards and other payment methods."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Free cash machines are paid for through an "interchange fee" levied on card issuers, "calculated by dividing the cost of running the free-to-use network by the number of transactions", says the Guardian.

This fee is currently between 20p and 30p per withdrawal, but it will rise markedly as usage declines.

Banks including Lloyds have said a major review is needed of machine locations in order to reduce costs. Independent suppliers, which provide more than half of the UK's ATMs, say the system could fragment and access to free cash could decline unless a deal is agreed.

Some cash machines already charge for use, with fees typically set at around £2.

However, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has also raised concerns about towns and villages running out of cash because of a lack cash machines and poor-quality ATMs at a time of bank closures.

Businesses feel "locked out and let down" by high street banks, which are abandoning towns and villages around the country, a spokesman for the FSB told The Independent.