UK banks are "slowing" down the process of opening of banking hubs, a leading right to payment choice activist said today (13), criticising bank chiefs' commitment to open 350 banking hubs over the next five years.
In the wake of mass closures of local branches, bank chiefs in a meeting with City minister Tulip Siddiq on Thursday (12) agreed to set up 350 “banking hubs” over the next five years. Under the deal agreed between the Treasury and the banks, about 230 hubs will be opened by the end of 2025. The remaining 120 would be rolled out by the end of the parliament, around 2029.
Banking hubs are shared banking spaces on the high street jointly operated by the Post Office and by lenders, whose representatives work on rotation, with a different “community banker” available on each day of the week. Members include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander, among others.
The commitment made by banks, however, stand contradictory to the claims made by Cash Access UK, a not-for-profit company owned and funded by nine major high street banking providers. The body had already committed to have 200 banking hubs open by the end of 2025.
Speaking to Asian Trader, Ron Delnevo from Payment Choice Alliance, said, "The number of 350 by 2029, seemingly agreed with Tulip Siddiq at the Treasury, is wholly inadequate. The CEO of Cash Access UK had already agreed to have 200 open by the end of 2025. 350 by 2029 is actually a drastic slowing down of the opening programme."
Payment Choice Alliance is a non-profit organisation that is running a campaign to ensure the British public get the choice of mode of payment and they should have liberty to pay in cash. The campaign states, citing a YouGov survey, that 88 per cent of the public do not support the UK becoming a so-called “cashless” society while 71 per cent of the British public want a law put in place to guarantee they can use cash, where and when they choose.
Delnevo added that the UK actually require 1200 banking hubs.
Further highlighting the "flaws in the deal", Delnevo pointed out that the fact that bank hubs are not required to have a 24-7 ATM is "also ludicrous".
"Without such an ATM they are not providing an adequate naming service in any community. This also highlights another flaw in the bank hub concept - the FCA has not forced the big five UK banks to agree any kind of detailed specification of such 'hubs'.
"This crass failure means those banks can dither even about whether the 'hubs' should have printers, let alone ATMs."
